Abstract
Generation and release of aroma compounds from food products is a dynamic process. Conventional analytical technologies – such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) – are poorly suited to studying changes on a timescale of seconds to minutes. This whitepaper introduces selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) – a start-of-the-art analytical technique for the tool kits of flavor chemists, new product developers, and food processing engineers. SIFT-MS analyzes chemically diverse aroma compounds in real-time, including amines, organosulfur compounds, and volatile fatty acids.
The Significance of Volatile Compounds in Foods and Personal Care Products
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) impart aroma to food, beverage, and personal care products (PCPs). Development and/or release of aroma compounds from these products frequently occurs over short timescales of seconds to minutes, requiring fast analysis techniques to probe the dynamics.
Conventional analytical technologies used for VOC analysis – most notably gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) – are poorly equipped to address these needs. Factors that preclude high-throughput and real-time analysis using GC-MS and HPLC are that:
•Chromatography is slow by its very nature, since it is intended to separate analytesin time.
- Achieving low detection limits (part-per-billion-by-volume (ppbV) and below)usually requires preconcentration and/or extraction to be utilized, prolongingsample preparation.
- Chromatographic columns are discriminatory, so these methods cannot provide acomplete analysis of the sample. Use of derivatization or other analytemodification also increases sample preparation time.
- Moisture generally needs to be removed prior to analysis.
- Data post-processing and interpretation from chromatograms is typically an off-line activity, delaying decision making – especially on the process line.
>> Download the Application Note as a PDF
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