Journal of Chromatography A, 1313 (2013) 1
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Journal of Chromatography A
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chroma
Foreword
Advances in Food Analysis
After the previous special Journal of Chromatography A issues
devoted to Advances in Food Analysis published in 2009 (vol. 1216,
issue 43) and 2011 (vol. 1218, issue 42), we are glad to present
a new special issue dedicated to this exciting topic. In the current
postgenomic era, Food Analysis covers a broad number of topics that
goes from the timeless verification of safety, quality and authen-
ticity of foods using the latest analytical techniques, to the most
recent determination of nutritional values and detection of tar-
get molecules with possible beneficial or toxic effects on human
health. From the point of view of a separation scientist, Food Analysis
includes the last developments on electromigration and chromato-
graphic separation techniques, including miniaturized formats,
modern Foodomics approaches and hyphenated procedures such
as CE–MS, LC–MS, GC–MS, GCXGC, and LCXLC.
Under the global framework of food analysis, Food Safety is still
by far the first request demanded by consumers. A vast legisla-
tion is focused on the substances that can be or cannot be found
or added to a particular food, and if so, usually stating maximum
limits of utilization. Moreover, within this field, not only the detec-
tion of totally or partially forbidden compounds is sought (typical
examples are the antibiotics and pesticides used in farming and
agriculture to increase the production rates), but also the deter-
mination of potentially dangerous compounds (e.g., pollutants and
toxins) or organisms that could be present in food, and which might
pose a risk for consumers. On the other hand, Food Quality is not
a completely objective parameter, because the consideration of
appropriate quality will strongly depend on the food in particular,
on the product itself, or even on the consumer. Among the aspects
related to food quality, food composition, aroma, flavor, taste, or
food properties can be pointed out. For this reason, assessing food
quality is a complex task that may imply different types of analysis
depending on the particular food or product. In addition, a large
part of the today’s research in Food Science includes new aspects
related to Food, Nutrition & Health. Thus, food is now considered
not only a source of energy but also an affordable way to prevent
future diseases. However, in order to scientifically demonstrate and
understand the healthy effect from food and food ingredients, ana-
lytical strategies have to face important difficulties derived, among
others, from food complexity, the huge natural variability, the large
number of different nutrients and bioactive food compounds, their
very different concentrations, their bioavailability and transfor-
mation in the human tract, the numerous targets with different
affinities and specificities that might exist in the human body, etc.
As a consequence, the continuous development of advanced ana-
lytical methods is needed in order to determine if the food we eat
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complies with the legislation (safety), with the expected character-
istics (quality) or it can provide any additional benefit (healthy).
The Journal of Chromatography A provides a forum for the pub-
lication of original research and critical reviews on all aspects
of fundamental and applied separation science. In this issue, 29
papers on Advances in Food Analysis are presented by several of
the most recognized researchers in the field of food analysis.
Namely, this special issue includes six review papers devoted to the
analysis of fructooligosaccharides and fructans in plants and food
crops, the study (including extraction, chemical characterization
and biological activity determination) of broccoli health promot-
ing compounds, the use of supercritical fluid chromatography in
food analysis, the description of the analytical strategies based
on chromatography–mass spectrometry for the determination of
estrogen-mimicking compounds in food, the use of monolithic
columns and their applications in food analysis and the advanced
phytochemical analysis of herbal tea in China. The 23 original
papers present topics related to sample preparation, modern sep-
aration approaches and hyphenated procedures such as GC–MS,
LC–MS, UHPLC–MS, CE–MS, LCXLC–MS and GCXGC–MS. The most
recent applications to assess food safety, quality and authenticity,
technological processes control, determination of nutritional val-
ues and detection of target molecules with possible beneficial or
toxic effects on human health are also presented.
As the Guest Editors of this special issue devoted to “Advances
in Food Analysis”, we would like to thank all authors who accepted
our invitation submitting their valuable contributions. Our thanks
are also due to all colleagues who spent some of their time
reviewing the manuscripts and giving useful advises to us and to
authors for improving the quality of the papers. Finally we are
grateful to Elsevier’s team (especially Jan Kastelein and Patricia
Massar) for the contribution given to the preparation of this special
issue.
Alejandro Cifuentes
Madrid, Spain
Paola Dugo
Messina, Italy
Salvatore Fanali
Roma, Italy
E-mail address: salvatore.fanali@cnr.it
(S. Fanali)
Available online 11 September 2013