Food integrity application compendium

Importance of the Topic

Ensuring food integrity—authenticity, absence of adulteration, accurate origin labeling, and compliance with halal or nutritional claims—is critical to protect public health, uphold regulatory standards, and preserve brand value. Modern fraud tactics target high-value commodities such as olive oil, honey, spices, coffee, and meat, while emerging threats include mislabeling of halal foods and addition of unauthorized dyes or contaminants. Advanced analytical methods are essential to identify both known and unknown adulterants, verify label claims, and trace geographical origin.

Objectives and Overview

This compendium summarizes key applications across a broad range of food matrices, illustrating analytical workflows developed to:

• Detect and quantify adulterants (sugar syrups in honey or juice, Sudan dyes in spices, plasticizers in beverages).
• Authenticate product origin and composition (C3 vs. C4 plant sugars, regional fingerprinting of coffee, wine, and olive oil).
• Verify halal compliance by identifying forbidden meat species.
• Profile complex mixtures non-targetedly (whisky, tea, curry, beer) using high-resolution MS and chemometrics.
• Develop fast, sensitive assays for key quality markers (anthocyanins, organic acids, capsaicinoids, melamine, cyanuric acid, ricin).

Methodology and Instrumentation

The methods employ a suite of complementary separations and detection platforms:

• Liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC, UHPLC, HILIC, 2D-SPE LC) with UV/Vis, photodiode array, charged aerosol, coulometric electrochemical array, or mass spectrometric detection.
• Gas chromatography coupled to high-resolution accurate-mass (Orbitrap) or triple quadrupole MS/MS, with non-targeted full-scan and targeted SIM/PRM modes.
• Ion chromatography (HPAE-PAD, Reagent-Free IC) for carbohydrates, organic acids, and amino-based adulterants.
• Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA-IRMS, GC-IRMS, LC-IRMS) for compound-specific and bulk stable isotope fingerprinting (δ13C, δ2H, δ18O) to trace plant origin and detect dilution/adulteration.
• Automated on-line sample preparation (TurboFlow, immunomagnetic separation) to minimize sample handling and contamination risk.

Key instruments featured include Thermo Scientific™ UltiMate™ 3000 and Vanquish™ Flex LC systems, TRACE™ 1310 GC, Q Exactive™ GC Orbitrap and Orbitrap LC-MS systems, TSQ™ triple quadrupoles, Transcend™ TLX with TurboFlow™, ICS-5000+ capillary IC, EA-IsoLink™, GC-IsoLink™, LC-IsoLink™, Integrion™ HPIC™, Dionex™ IonPac™ and CarboPac™ columns, Acclaim™, Accucore™, HyperSep™ SPE, and DXR™ 2 Raman microscope.

Main Results and Discussion

• PCA-based metabolomic fingerprinting with spectro-electro array detection differentiated teas, wines, and juices, uncovered covert adulteration below 5% (w/w), and classified orange juices by varietal and region.
• GC-Orbitrap non-targeted profiling of whiskies achieved simultaneous pesticide residue analysis and origin/authentication classification based on oak-cask markers.
• EA-IRMS and LC-IRMS methods reliably distinguished C3 vs. C4 sugars in honey, juice, and tequila; detected water addition in wines; differentiated olive vs. shark squalane; traced coffee bean provenance by δ2H/δ18O fingerprint.
• HPAE-PAD assays on CarboPac and CarboPac PA2 columns provided sub-ppm quantitation of sugars, lactulose, anthocyanins, and HMF in juices, creams, and honey, with run times under 10 minutes.
• Targeted LC-MS/MS on Q Exactive and TSQ systems achieved 1% (w/w) meat speciation in complex matrices, and melamine/cyanuric acid detection down to sub-ppm levels in dairy products.
• IMS-SERS approach delivered 20-minute identification of ricin in milk at low μg/mL concentrations.

Benefits and Practical Applications

• Regulatory Compliance: Methods support EU, FDA, AOAC, and halal certification requirements.
• High Throughput & Robustness: Automated sample prep, rapid separations, and high-resolution detection reduce analysis time and variability.
• Comprehensive Coverage: Platforms accommodate targeted, non-targeted, quantitative, and isotopic workflows in a unified laboratory environment.
• Brand Protection: Sensitive authentication tools and chemometric models deter economically motivated fraud and mislabeling.
• Quality Control: Real-time screening of raw materials and finished products ensures consistency, shelf-life monitoring, and safety assurance.

Future Trends and Possibilities of Use

• Expansion of HRMS-based non-targeted screening for emerging contaminants and natural toxins.
• Integration of machine learning with chemometrics for automated adulterant detection and sample classification.
• Miniaturization and portable instrumentation for on-site rapid testing and traceability along the supply chain.
• Advances in microflow LC and multidimensional separations for deeper metabolomic coverage.
• Wider adoption of compound-specific isotope analysis to authenticate regional specialties and detect ultra-low-level adulteration.

Conclusion

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s analytical solutions deliver versatile, high-performance workflows that meet the rigorous demands of modern food laboratories. By combining advanced separation, detection, and isotopic techniques with automated sample handling and chemometric tools, laboratories can robustly address food integrity challenges—from routine QA/QC to cutting-edge non-targeted screening—safeguarding consumer trust, regulatory compliance, and brand value.

References

• Carter, J.F. & Chesson, L.A. (2017). Food Forensics: Stable Isotopes as a Guide to Authenticity and Origin. CRC Press.
• Schönfeld, P. et al. (2010). Multielement stable isotope ratios (H, C, N, S) of honey from different European regions. Food Chemistry. 121, 770–777.
• Kelly, S.D., Brodie, C.R., & Hilkert, A. (2018). Isotopic-Spectroscopic Techniques: IRMS. In Modern Techniques for Food Authentication, Academic Press.
• Heaton, K. et al. (2008). Verifying the geographical origin of beef: application of multi-element isotope and trace elemental analysis. Food Chemistry. 107, 506–515.