Analysis of Contaminants in Foods

Introduction

Concern for food is rising these days due to events of contamination with toxins and deceptive labeling of origin, etc., and one concern related to food safety is contamination with foreign substances. When foreign matter contaminates a food product, even if, for example, it consists of dirt from the exterior food wrapping which has no direct effect on the human body, the image of that commercial product and its manufacturer as well as vendor, can be very adversely affected, requiring that the matter be urgently addressed. Identification and qualitative characterization of a foreign material is essential for defining the cause of contamination, and use of the Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR) is one of the quickest and the easiest means of accomplishing this. Here, we introduce actual cases in which FTIR was used to analyze contaminants that were found in food products.

October 28, 2009 GMT