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Food Safety

Our global food supply chain has raised concerns about food safety. Products are grown and processed in widely differing environments under a variety of regulatory frameworks, travel thousands of miles, are kept in various storage conditions, experience temperature fluctuations that may affect shelf life, and are handled by many different people. At any point in this process, products can be contaminated or may become unfit for consumption. Contaminants may originate from agricultural sources, such as excessive pesticides, animal growth hormones, or antibiotics; environmental sources, such as water and air pollutants; or from food production processes, via contamination or adulteration.

Food contaminant analysis poses several challenges. Usually, the contaminant must be isolated from the food matrix before it can be analyzed. The proper separation technique, medium, and mobile phase/gradient must be identified, depending on the suspected contaminants. Finally, a detection method sensitive to the suspected contaminants must be used. Dionex has worked with industry and regulatory agencies to develop extraction, sample preparation, IC, and HPLC systems as well as columns, detectors, software, and applications to help detect and determine a broad range of food contaminants.

Agricultural Chemical Contaminants

Agricultural chemicals include pesticides, herbicides, plant growth regulators, growth hormones, and veterinary drugs/antibiotics. Food producers must test plants and animals for residues from these chemicals to prevent health hazards to consumers. Dionex applications facilitate determination of numerous agricultural chemicals.

Environmental Contaminants

Environmental contaminants can be either natural or man-made, and are present in the water, air, and soil. Some are biological byproducts of bacteria or fungi that may come into contact with foods during growth or storage.

Food Additive Contaminants

Food additive contaminants are chemicals that are intentionally added to a product during the manufacturing process. Many chemicals are added for valid reasons, and need to be monitored to assure they are added according to their usage and specifications, to detect contamination of chemical feed stocks, and for labeling purposes due to potential allergic reactions for consumers.

Processing Contaminants for Food Safety

Processing contaminants are generated during the processing cycle of a product. They are formed when a chemical reaction takes place between the food and processing (e.g. disinfection, fermentation, heating, canning, or grilling).