ELEMENTAL COMPOSITION ANALYSIS OF FOOD BY FAES AND ICP-OES

LUIS DANTE MARTÍNEZ, RAÚL ANDRÉS GIL, PABLO HUGO PACHECO, SOLEDAD CERUTTI

Handbook of Mineral Element in Foods: Chemistry, Analysis and Food Composition

Wiley

Año: 2014;

Foods are an extremely diverse group of products that are often supplemented with additional items and, sometimes, contaminated with harmful substances. The concept of "food analysis" has grown in complexity as a result of international regulations and legislation, consumer demand, and globalization of the food market. Thus it has become an absolutely necessary task to trace a detailed description of a food, in terms of its nutritional value, chemical composition, bioactivity, and toxicological aspects. Food analysis pushes research towards more advanced, sensitive, and environmental-friendly methodologies. Sample preparation is a crucial part of the analysis. A successful food analysis cannot be achieved without an appropriate, convenient, and reliable sample preparation strategy. On the other hand, in the last few years, a considerable variety of analytical methods applied to food analysis have been made available at the same rate as the increasing concern about food safety. The choice of the analytical methodology depends upon various factors, such as nature of sample, goal of the analysis, and the availability of human and instrumental resources. In this chapter, current atomic emission based-sampling methodologies and sample preparation techniques used for food analysis and the advantages and drawbacks of each one will be discussed. In addition, two elemental spectrometric determination techniques-Flame Atomic Emission Spectrometry (FAES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES)-, their fundamentals, operational and experimental considerations regarding elemental analysis in food samples, and applications will be described.