The Application of Supercritical Fluid Chromatography in Food Quality and Food Safety: An Overview

Abstract

Recently, supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) has attracted considerable attention for their application in food analysis. The use of supercritical CO₂ (SC–CO₂), as a mobile phase for SFC, with its low viscosity and high molecular diffusiveness, results in shorter analysis time and lower consumption of organic solvents as compared to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). In addition, with recent improvements in its detection system, SFC has shown satisfactory selectivity and sensitivity. Thus, although the composition of food is complex, SFC remains a powerful tool in food analysis with some simple sample pretreatment techniques, such as liquid–liquid extraction, solid-phase extraction, and QuEChERS. Here, we summarize the applications of SFC in food quality and safety from 2012 to 2018, and mainly focus on sample pretreatment strategies and analysis conditions.

Keywords:

• Food analysis
• pesticide analysis
• sample pretreatment
• supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (CIFMS) [grant number 2016-I2M-1-001]; Liaoning planning Program of Philosophy and Social Science [grant number L17BGL034]; Research Program on the Reform of Undergraduate Teaching in General Higher Schools in Liaoning [grant number 2016-346]; Key Program of the Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province of China [grant number 20170541027]; and Medical Education Scientific Research about “12th Five-Year Plan” (Fifth Batch of Subjects) Founded by China Medical University [grant number YDJK2015005].