Food and beverage workflow solutions

Significance of the Topic

Food and beverage analysis plays a critical role in ensuring product quality, verifying nutritional content, enforcing safety regulations, and preventing fraud. Comprehensive, integrated workflows streamline laboratory operations, reduce sample turnaround time, and enhance data reliability across applications such as lipid profiling, vitamin determination, fatty acid analysis, packaging compliance, and pesticide monitoring.

Objectives and Overview

This brochure presents modular end-to-end solutions for five key analytical workflows in food and beverage laboratories. Each workflow covers sample preparation, chromatographic separation, detection strategies, and recommended consumables. The goal is to demonstrate how to assemble high-performance, scalable protocols for routine testing and advanced research without outsourcing, while maintaining regulatory compliance and minimizing environmental impact.

Methodology

• Triacylglycerol profiling: Direct dilution of olive and grapeseed oil samples followed by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography with charged aerosol detection (UHPLC-CAD) to resolve major TAG species in a single run.
• Water- and fat-soluble vitamins: Parallel dual-channel UHPLC with diode array detection (DAD) separates and quantifies nine water-soluble and 11 fat-soluble vitamins in beverages and tablet extracts using polar-embedded C18 columns.
• FAME analysis: Acid or base derivatization of edible oils to methyl esters, followed by capillary gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) on a highly polar cyanopropyl column to resolve 37 cis/trans fatty acid isomers.
• Food contact material screening: Automated solid-phase microextraction (SPME) with arrow technology coupled to GC-MS/MS for detection and quantification of 12 volatile and semi-volatile migrants from paperboard packaging.
• Pesticide residue monitoring: QuEChERS extraction of potato matrices followed by GC-Orbitrap high-resolution mass spectrometry, enabling simultaneous screening and quantification of nearly 200 pesticides at sub-µg/kg levels.

Used Instrumentation

• Thermo Scientific Vanquish Flex and Duo UHPLC systems with CAD and DAD modules
• TRACE 1600 series GC and TRACE TR-FAME/TraceGOLD TG-5SilMS columns
• TriPlus RSH SMART and AI/AS 1610 autosamplers for headspace, SPME, and liquid injection
• TSQ 9610 GC-MS/MS and Orbitrap Exploris GC high-resolution MS detectors

Main Results and Discussion

Each workflow delivered baseline separation of target analytes within 10–70 minutes, with excellent peak shape and reproducibility. TAG profiling achieved clear resolution of 11 major species, vitamin methods resolved over 20 compounds in under 20 minutes, FAME analysis separated 37 isomers, and SPME-GC-MS/MS identified migrants at µg/kg levels. Pesticide screening demonstrated recoveries between 70–120% and repeatability below 15% RSD at regulatory limits.

Benefits and Practical Applications

• Enhanced throughput through automation and simplified sample prep
• Reduced solvent consumption and waste via direct dilution and SPME
• In-house consolidation of multiple analyses to reduce outsourcing costs
• Robust performance across diverse food matrices and compliance with EU guidelines

Future Trends and Potential Applications

Emerging directions include integration of high-resolution MS with advanced data analytics and machine learning for automated fingerprinting, miniaturized and inline sampling for real-time monitoring, greener stationary phases and solvent-free extractions, and expansion into novel matrices such as plant-based proteins and functional ingredients.

Conclusion

This suite of workflow solutions illustrates how versatile chromatographic and MS technologies, combined with optimized consumables, can address critical analytical challenges in food and beverage laboratories. Adopting these protocols promotes efficiency, sustainability, and regulatory compliance while safeguarding consumer health.

References

• Determination of olive oil purity based on triacylglycerols profiling by UHPLC-CAD and principal component analysis
• Simultaneous determination of water- and fat-soluble vitamins in tablets and energy drinks using Vanquish Duo
• A GC-FID method for comparison of acid- and base-catalyzed derivatization of fatty acids to FAMEs
• SPME-GC-MS/MS for identification and quantification of migration contaminants in paperboard food packaging
• Simultaneous screening and quantification of pesticide residues in potato using GC-Orbitrap MS