BOOK OF ABSTRACTS - 6 International Symposium on RECENT ADVANCES IN FOOD ANALYSIS (RAFA)

6th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Food Analysis – Prague, November 5–8, 2013

Throughout four days, this international event brought together experts in analytical chemistry, food safety, and food quality to present and discuss the latest analytical developments and applications covering a broad spectrum of topics.

Seminars and Workshops

• Hands-on introductions to emerging technologies: infrared and Raman spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics for rapid on-line and at-line screening of food and feed products.
• EU-level risk-assessment training by EFSA specialists on contaminants in food and feed, including heavy metals, mycotoxins, and persistent organic pollutants.
• Interactive tutorials on method development for sample preparation, separation, and MS analysis.
• Workshops on ambient mass spectrometry (DART, DESI, LESA) and metabolomics data processing tools for non-targeted screening and profiling.

Vendor Seminars

Leading instrumentation and reagent suppliers showcased innovations to streamline food analysis workflows:
• Automated QuEChERS extraction, on-line immunoaffinity cleanup, and rapid LC–MS/MS methods for pesticide, mycotoxin, antibiotic, and veterinary drug residues.
• Novel GC columns for PAH analysis and hydrogen-carrier GC–MS for trace-level environmental contaminants.
• Automated ambient workflows (DART–MS, LC–Probe) for ultra-fast screening of adulterants, toxins, and classification of botanical origin.
• Latest high-resolution Triple Q and Q-ToF mass spectrometers for multi-residue testing, non-target screening, and high-speed quantitation.
• NIR/FT-NIR and 1H-NMR platforms for rapid, reagent-free authentication, quality control, and metabolic fingerprinting of juices, wines, and dairy.
• Stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) for origin verification and fraud detection in vinegar, oils, spirits, and honey.

Key Lecture Highlights

• Multi-omic food analysis (“Foodomics”) integrating genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics to understand food safety, quality, and bioactivity in the postgenomic era.
• Advances in EU policy on contaminants: updates on maximum levels, prevention strategies, and harmonization of analytical methods for mycotoxins, metal toxicants, and emerging process contaminants (acrylamide, chloropropanols).
• Emerging techniques for nanoparticle analysis in food matrices: field-flow fractionation–ICP–MS, single-particle ICP–MS, and advanced sample preparation for E171 and silver NP detection.
• Development of high-sensitivity immunoassays and aptamer-based biosensors for rapid on-site mycotoxin and allergen screening with microplate and bead-based arrays.
• Ambient MS applications for food authenticity (rapid wine and juice profiling), microbial detection on surfaces, and pesticide identification on produce.
• Non-targeted screening using accurate-mass LC–MS and GC–MS platforms to discover unknown adulterants, contaminants, and illegal substances.
• Novel MS/MS strategies (EI, APCI) to improve sensitivity and specificity in POP and pesticide residue analysis, including All-Ions workflows and hydrogen carrier gas GC–MS.
• Validation and collaborative studies of automated GC–MS/MS for PCDD/Fs and PCBs in feed, demonstrating the potential of tandem quadrupole systems for confirmatory analysis.

Looking Ahead

Discussions emphasized the importance of cross-platform validation, proficiency testing, and data harmonization to ensure comparability of results across laboratories. Future trends include increased automation, integration of ambient and high-resolution MS workflows, expansion of multi-omic approaches for exposure biomarker discovery, and the continued development of cost-effective rapid screening methods to strengthen food safety controls worldwide.

Reference

This summary is based on the Book of Abstracts of the 6th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Food Analysis, ICT Prague Press, ISBN 978-80-7080-861-0.