Overview of the applications of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry interfacing systems in food analysis: naturally occurring substances in food

This paper reviews applications of different LC–MS techniques for the analysis of natural compounds in foods. Specific examples of substances discussed are lipids, oligosaccharides, vitamins, flavonoids and related substances, phenolic compounds, glucosinolates, and other miscellaneous naturally occurring compounds in food products. LC–MS is a powerful technique in food analysis and especially for analysis of complex mixtures, where additional analytical information is required to confirm positively the identity of the separated compounds or few separations are obtained. Among the interfacing systems used to couple LC with MS, the newly developed electrospray/ionspray mass spectrometric liquid interface offers undoubted advantages in terms of sensitivity and capability to analyze large, thermally labile and highly polar compounds; in addition, tandem MS techniques are useful for structural elucidation studies.