Rapid fingerprint identification of flavor components in food

Background <br>The fragrance that appeals to various senses including smell, taste and taste is one of the most important factors contributing to the successful sale of food. Each food manufacturer creates and maintains its own flavor characteristics to distinguish it from competitors' products. There are differences in the characteristics of flavor components in different foods. In order to ensure product quality and accurate labeling, chemical analysis is required to analyze and verify the flavor components and final products. However, most chemical composition analysis methods require time-consuming and labor-intensive sample preparation procedures including extraction, filtration, dilution, and chromatographic separation. Therefore, there is an urgent need to have a screening tool that can quickly verify the characteristics of the fragrance and verify the quality of the product.

ASAP takes less than 3 minutes to fingerprint the chemical composition of the fragrance ingredients in a variety of beverages and foods.

Method <br>The Waters® Atmospheric Solid Phase Analytical Probe (ASAP) is used in conjunction with a quadrupole mass spectrometer to meet this need. ASAP eliminates the need for sample extraction, dilution, and chromatographic separations, and can be used to quickly identify fingerprints of chemical constituents of flavors in various beverages and foods such as vanilla extract, coffee, ice cream, and cookies.

The cookie and ice cream samples were loaded onto the sealed glass melting capillary of the ASAP probe by directly passing the capillary through the sample surface. The top of the sealing glass melting capillary is immersed in the sample so that the vanilla extract and coffee sample are loaded onto the ASAP probe. The ASAP probe is inserted into the sealed source and the desolvent gas is rapidly heated to 200 °C.

  The data in Figures 1-4 were acquired using an ESCi positive ion mass scan mode with a 3 minute run time at a cone voltage of 15V. Go to background

The mass spectrum is obtained by subtracting the baseline of the reference spectrum from the total ion chromatogram of the sample.

Figures 1-4 compare the mass spectra between true and false vanilla extract, French vanilla coffee and Irish creamy coffee, two cookie samples A and B, and two ice cream samples A and B. The data indicates that there are differences in the flavor characteristics of these products.

to sum up
ASAP eliminates the need for sample extraction, dilution, and chromatographic separations and can be used to quickly fingerprint the flavor characteristics of various foods and verify product quality. By eliminating sample preparation and solvent usage, this 3-minute screening solution can increase lab productivity by saving analysis time. It also reduces environmental impact, which is consistent with the principles of green chemistry. The end result is a reduction in the daily operating costs of the laboratory.