Recent developments in instrumental analysis for food quality

The definition of food quality has to be discussed in regard of changes of consumer expectations, legislative needs and new developments in instrumental analysis. The production process has to be controlled by fast new methods based on physical, chemical or increasingly biochemical/immunological principles. New chromatographic, immunological and mass-spectrometric methods allow the detection of trace amounts of residues/contaminants, allergens, trans-fatty acids and other undesired ingredients for food surveillance. Additionally, analysis of new metabolic pathways in nutritional research is of increasing interest, giving evidence for positive health effects of minor food ingredients such as omega-3 fatty acids, isoflavones or conjugated linoleic acids. Most recent efforts in mass-spectrometric, biochemical and online/at-line methods for analysis of allergenicity, residues/contaminants, trans-fatty acid and for determination of identity and geographic origin of food are presented.