Application of Chromatography-Based Techonologies in Food Analysis

Dear Colleagues,

In the face of increasing demand for food worldwide, intensive productive systems are fastly replacing family farming and smallholders agriculture. In this context, the rational use of chemicals (veterinary drugs, pesticides, etc.) has greatly contributed to achieving current high production rates of animal- and plant-derived foods. There is a wide variety of exogenous compounds found in foods as a consequence not only of their permitted use but also due to natural processes or human action. Food contaminants typically include environmental contaminants, food processing contaminants, adulterants and non-approved food additives, and migrants from packaging materials. In stock farming, pharmacologically active substances that may be administered to animals include antibiotics, anticoccidials and anthelmintics, sedatives, and steroidal and non-steroidal drugs, amongst others. The use of veterinary drugs in food-producing animals has the potential to generate residues in their edible products (meat, milk, eggs, and honey), and in this sense the administration of these compounds must be controlled and monitored, as residues may pose a health hazard for the consumer.

Due to the potential presence of a huge range of high-risk substances in food, there is a need to develop new analytical methods that allow rapid and efficient sample preparation together with the reliable determination of the compounds of interest. In this sense, both liquid and gas chromatography have played a significant role in the development of analytical methods for food analysis, thanks to their separative abilities and tremendous versatility. This Special Issue welcomes original research and reviews of literature on modern LC- and GC-based solutions for monitoring veterinary drugs and contaminants in food, including the determination of permitted and banned chemicals but also other borderline compounds such as food additives, plasticizers, or heavy metals. Contributions must reflect the state-of-the-art on the topic, and analytical methods must be properly validated according to official guidelines.

Dr. Patricia Patricia Regal
Dr. Cristina A. Fente
Guest Editors

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• Veterinary drug
• Contaminant
• Analytical method
• Chromatography
• Food safety