Expert Discussion Forum: Mass Spectrometry to Fight Food Fraud

Register for this upcoming discussion forum and benefit from the real-world experiences of our expert panelists who provide their insights into such questions as:

• What analytical techniques are useful in detecting food fraud or confirming authenticity?
• Why is mass spectrometry (MS) such a promising tool for food authenticity?
• What are some of the challenges with MS that prevent its widespread and routine use for food authenticity currently?
• What innovations or advances in MS would aid its wider adoption in food authenticity testing?

Tackling food fraud is a global problem requiring a global effort. Fit-for-purpose analytical methods, both targeted and non-targeted, are required to identify fraud candidates and characterize specific markers for confirmation, enabling a legal route to address and overcome these food fraud issues.

Chromatography and mass spectrometry techniques fill the analytical toolbox required for food authenticity testing, and together with global collaboration for method development, protocol building and solution validation offer a platform for understanding and preventing current and future food crimes. Register for this forum to hear leading industry experts discuss these issues.

Our expert panelists are:

Prof. Chris Elliott, PhD, FRSC, FRSB, MRIA, OBE (Queen’s University Belfast)

Chris is Professor of Food Safety and founder of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast. He has published more than 480 peer review articles relating to the detection and control of agriculture, food and environmental related contaminants and fraud. Chris is a visiting Professor at the China Agriculture University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is a recipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and Royal Society of Biology. He was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Theophilus Redwood Prize and an OBE in 2017. He was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2020.

Prof. Chiara Cordero (University of Turin, Italy)

Prof. Cordero's research interests focus on the development of instrumental configurations for GC×GC-MS for food-omics investigations (profiling and fingerprinting approaches); the discovery of food intake markers (food metabolomics, nutrimetabolomics and volatilomics) in bio-fluids after diet-induced derangements; and the development and application of miniaturized, fully automated and solvent-free sample preparation approaches for sensomic characterization of food. In 2008, Chiara was awarded with the "Leslie S. Ettre” Award for original research in capillary gas chromatography with an emphasis on environmental and food safety and in 2014 received the “John B. Phillips Award” for her research activity in the field of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography.

Dr Stéphane Bayen (McGill University, Canada)

Dr Bayen's research interests include analytical chemistry applied to the fingerprinting of trace chemicals in agri-food matrices; the fate of contaminants (contaminant chemistry; bioaccumulation; behaviour of contaminants during food processing); and ecological & human health risk assessments. His research uses high-resolution mass spectrometry and advanced big data processing tools, for the rapid characterization of thousands of never-before-studied chemicals in complex agri-food matrices. Dr Bayen has a proven history of research and collaboration with industry and food safety agencies on matrices including honey, seafood, food extracts, or maple syrup on food authenticity. Most recently, Dr Bayen became recipient of the Agilent Thought Leader Award, recognizing his leadership and contributions to the fields of Food Analysis and Food Authenticity.