Food Chemical Contaminants Analysis

Food safety and quality is critical for both the general public's health and the food industry. Food chemical contamination is one of the main concerns of global food safety which can pose health risks to human beings. It refers to the presence of undesirable chemicals or the present chemicals are above the regulated standard in food products. Food chemical contamination can cause foodborne outbreaks, resulting in the heavy burden to public health and significant economic loss.

Figure 1. Analysis of food products

Food chemical contaminants can be involved from a variety of sources. The chemical contaminants can be from the chemical hazards naturally occurring in the environment, such as heavy metals and dioxins; the chemicals that artificially added by humans, such as Sudan dyes and melamine; or undesirably formed during the process of food products, such as acrylamide and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). All phases of the food products processing from the raw ingredients to the final transportation could contribute to the food chemical contamination.

The analysis of chemical contaminants is a key step to control the food contamination associated with chemical hazards, reducing the health risk to the general public and the economic loss caused by foodborne outbreaks. It is necessary and important to have advanced techniques and platforms to measure different types of chemical contaminants in food samples.

There is an array of techniques or platforms to choose from for the analysis of food chemical hazards. The factors that affect the selected approach for the analysis include the complexity of food matrices, the characteristics of the chemical contaminant of interest, and the detection limit of the method. The purpose of the contaminants analysis can vary from the determination of the contaminants level to the identification of unknow adulterants. The analytical methods can be qualitative, semiquantitative, or quantitative.

Figure 2. Chemical analysis

The examples of commonly used techniques for the analysis of food chemical contaminants are the following:

Gas chromatography (GC) is usually used for the analysis of volatile, semivolatile or less-polar organic chemicals. Liquid chromatography (LC) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) are generally performed for the analysis of polar, less-volatile or thermolabile organic chemicals. Mass spectrometry (MS) provides quantitative analysis and structural identification of chemicals. GC-MS and LC-MS can provide higher sensitivity and better analysis performance. Heavy metals are generally detected using ICP-MS (Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) and XRF (X-ray fluorescence). Spectroscopy, such as UV-vis and Raman, is also used for the analysis of organic chemicals. Immunoassays can be used for the analysis of some mycotoxins and antibiotics.

Our services for chemical contaminants analysis

• Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
• Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
• Dioxins
• Dioxin-like PCBs
• Melamine
• Sudan dyes
• Acrylamide
• MCPD
• Dicyandiamide (DCD)
• Heavy Metals
• Plasticisers
• Phytohaemagglutinin
• Scombrotoxin
• Leather hydrolysates
• Bisphenol A
• Lubricants

Analysis workflow

Figure 3: Chemical analysis workflow

Our company provides a variety of different services to meet the customers' need for the analysis of food chemical contaminants. We provide full analysis services including sample preparation, chemical identification and detection, data analysis and customized analysis. We have strong experience working with different regulations and standards of chemical contaminants analysis.