When analyzing the odorants in food or their raw materials, the formation of artifacts can significantly distort the results. In a new comparative study, two investigators of the Leibniz-Institute for the biology of food systems at the Technical University of Munich have shown that the injection method in the chromatographic gas analysis of gas has a decisive influence on the formation of artifacts. The injection into the column proved to be the gold standard, while the methods without solvents worked significantly worse.
Odorants are volatile compounds that contribute significantly to the sensory perception of food and, therefore, have a decisive influence on consumer buying decisions. However, analyzing them is a challenging task. In science and research, gas-olfactometry chromatography has been established as an indispensable method to identify active smell compounds and distinguish them from most toilet volatile substances.
In this method, the researchers separate individual volatile substances, previously isolated from food as smoothly as possible, through the use of a gas chromatograph and the effluent smell to determine which compounds they smell and which do not.
Two artifact sources
In general, artifacts can arise both during isolation and the analysis of volatile compounds. “The formation of artifacts during the preparation of the sample has been studied well and can now be minimized. explains the research director Martin Steinhaus: “However, the formation of artifacts during the sample injection has been underestimated to a large extent, partly due to the fault of significant comparative data “.
Julian Reinhardt, first author of the study, thus examined ten different injection methods using 14 test compounds. As the doctoral student research shows, the high injection temperatures in particular led to active smell artifacts and, therefore, have the potential to significantly distort the analysis of odorants.
Standard column gold injection
“The injection into the column proved to be particularly reliable because the sample is not exposed to high temperatures,” reports Martin Steinhaus, who directs the food metaboloma research group at the Leibniz Institute. “On the contrary, the injection without division at high temperatures showed a significant formation of artifacts, especially in combination with the solid phase microextraction of the head space,” continues the food chemist. It recommends using column injection in all cases to obtain a reliable and representative odorant spectrum of a food.
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