PROGRAM - 8th International Symposium on RECENT ADVANCES IN FOOD ANALYSIS

Importance of the topic

Ensuring the safety, quality and authenticity of food involves detecting contaminants, verifying ingredient provenance and characterizing bioactive components across complex supply chains. Recent advances in analytical chemistry—from high-resolution mass spectrometry to portable sensors—enable rapid, sensitive and robust screening that supports public health, industry compliance and research innovation.

Objectives and overview

The 8th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Food Analysis (RAFA 2017) in Prague convened researchers, regulators and industry experts to:

• Share cutting-edge methods for detecting toxins, residues and adulteration.
• Demonstrate next-generation instrumentation including high-resolution MS, ion mobility and spectroscopy.
• Discuss harmonization of analytical protocols and laboratory accreditation.
• Showcase mobile and field-deployable solutions for rapid on-site testing.
• Foster international collaboration and training of early-stage scientists.

Methodology and instrumentation

Key analytical strategies presented included:

• Chromatographic separations: UHPLC-MS/MS, GC-MS/MS, GC×GC-TOF and supercritical fluid chromatography.
• High-resolution mass spectrometry: Q-TOF, Orbitrap, triple quad and sector-field instruments.
• Ion mobility spectrometry for isomer and conformer separation.
• Ambient ionization techniques: DART, REIMS, SPME-DART and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy.
• Spectroscopic methods: NIR, FTIR, Raman and hyperspectral imaging.
• Fingerprints and non-targeted approaches coupled with chemometrics and multivariate statistics.
• Sample preparation innovations: QuEChERS, solid-phase extraction, molecularly imprinted polymers and enzymatic clean-up.
• Portable devices: smartphone-based assays, nanoarrays and lab-on-a-disc platforms.

Main results and discussion

Across oral sessions and posters, speakers demonstrated:

• Improved detection of mycotoxins, marine biotoxins and plant alkaloids using non-targeted HRMS workflows.
• Authenticity screening of oils, honey, wine and dairy via isotopic ratios, metabolomic fingerprints and spectroscopic markers.
• Rapid monitoring of processing contaminants (PAHs, MCPD esters, acrylamide) with automated online sample clean-up.
• Advances in portable analysis for food fraud detection and consumer safety, including ambient MS and handheld spectroscopy.
• Human biomonitoring techniques linking dietary exposure to residues and contaminants by high-throughput LC-MS/MS.

Benefits and practical applications

These innovations deliver:

• Enhanced analytical specificity and lower detection limits for regulatory compliance.
• Faster turnaround times and streamlined workflows in routine QA/QC laboratories.
• Field-deployable tools for real-time screening by industry and inspectors.
• Integrated data approaches supporting foodomics, exposure assessment and risk management.

Used Instrumentation

Instruments highlighted at RAFA 2017 included:

• Liquid and gas chromatographs with triple quadrupole and high-resolution-Orbitrap or Q-TOF detectors.
• Comprehensive two-dimensional GC×GC-TOF-MS systems.
• Supercritical fluid chromatography–mass spectrometry platforms.
• Ion mobility spectrometers and FTIR/NIR/Raman spectrometers.
• Ambient MS sources: DART, REIMS, DESI and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy units.
• Smartphone-based optical and electrochemical sensors.

Future trends and opportunities

Emerging directions in food analysis include:

• Integration of big-data analytics, machine learning and digital databases for rapid anomaly detection.
• Advances in mobile, miniaturized and IoT-connected sensors for decentralized monitoring.
• Expansion of foodomics combining genomics, metabolomics and exposomics for precision risk assessment.
• Development of metrology infrastructures and certified reference materials to harmonize global standards.

Conclusion

RAFA 2017 fostered multidisciplinary exchange on state-of-the-art analytical solutions addressing food safety, authenticity and quality. By uniting academia, regulators and industry, the symposium accelerated the adoption of robust, high-throughput and field-ready methods. The next RAFA symposium will continue driving innovation and collaboration in food analysis.

References

No specific literature references were provided in the source document.