Elemental Trace Analysis in Studies of Food Products

Elemental Trace Analysis in Studies of Food Products 

Mineral elements play a key role in the human body and especially in the regulation of cell metabolism. They are either incorporated into the tissues or else are present in body liquids in ionic form. They also participate in metabolic processes such as electrolyte and hormone economy, haematopoiesis, and development of the nervous and skeletal systems [1,2]. 

An imbalance in mineral component economy leads to disturbances in cell functions and the appearance of disease symptoms. The human-transformed natural environment usually deteriorates and exerts a negative influence on our health and food quality. The presence and availability of some mineral elements vital for the proper functioning of the human body are particularly vulnerable to such adverse changes. Diet and the chemical elements in food can affect the risk of contracting diseases to various extents. An inappropriate diet is a factor favouring the development of circulatory diseases and carcinomas [3] (the main causes of premature death) and has become a serious social and economic problem. 

Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Food Sciences, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland 

Maintaining the quality of food is a far more complex problem than the quality assurance of non-food products. Analytical methods are an indispensable monitoring tool for controlling levels of substances essential for health and also of toxic substances, including heavy metals. The usual techniques for detecting elements in food are flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS), graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF AAS), hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry (HG AAS), cold vapour atomic absorption spectrometry (CV AAS), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP AES), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP MS) and neutron activation analysis (NAA). 

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Elemental Trace Analysis In Studies of Food Products... 

In 1935, the Committee was renamed the Analytical Methods Committee (AMC) but the main analytical work was carried out by sub-committees composed of analysts with specialised knowledge of the particular application area. The earliest topics selected for study were milk products, essential oils, soap and the determination of metals in food colourants. Later applications included the determination of fluorine, crude fibre, total solids in tomato products, trade effluents and trace elements, and vitamins in animal feeding stuffs. These later topics led to the publication of standard methods in a separate booklet. All standard and recommended methods were collated and published in a volume entitled Bibliography of Standard, Tentative and Recommended or Recognised Methods of Analysis in 1951. This bibliography was expanded to include full details of the method under the title Official, Standardised and Recommended Methods of Analysis in 1976 with a second edition in 1983 and a third edition in 1994. 

In the 50 years since its introduction, the use of GC by the petroleum industry has helped foster many breakthroughs in GC instrumentation. Open-tubular GC columns and the theory that describes them were first introduced by Golay and Ettre in the mid-1950s. The further development of open-tubular capillary columns was done by Desty of British Petroleum, and, with subsequent refinement, this technique is now the standard method for most GC applications. The use of GC for sample analysis was also quickly adopted by the pharmaceutical and food industries and is used for fundamental studies of reaction kinetics and physiochemical measurements. Today the use of GC for the analysis of complex samples such as serum proteins, natural products, essential oils, and environmental samples has become a routine with multidimensional separation techniques and multivariate chemometric analysis providing identificatimi and quantification of trace analytes from complex samples in the sub-ppb range. A GC system usually consists of the following elements (Fig. 1) ... 

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