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Title: FAST ANALYSIS OF FLAVORS FORMULATIONS USING A MASS SPECTRAL BASED CHEMICAL SENSOR

Author
item KINTON, VANESSA - GERSTEL, INC.
item WHITECAVAGE, JACQUELINE - GERSTEL, INC.
item THORP, JOHN - GERSTEL, INC.
item Goodner, Kevin

Submitted to: American Chemical Society National Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/1/2003
Publication Date: 9/6/2003
Citation: KINTON, V.R., WHITECAVAGE, J.A., THORP, J., GOODNER, K.L. FAST ANALYSIS OF FLAVORS FORMULATIONS USING A MASS SPECTRAL BASED CHEMICAL SENSOR. AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY NATIONAL MEETING. 2003. PAPER NO. 5.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Nowadays new flavors appear in a great variety of food products. For example, coffee, teas, yogurts, etc can be purchased in many different flavors. The chemical analysis of these new and exotic flavors can be demanding. A traditional approach widely used in the flavor industry is the use of Gas Chromatography/Mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Although, GC/MS is a reliable technique, the analysis times can be long and its output (a total ion chromatogram, TIC) can be challenging to compare when many samples are analyzed. In order to simplify the comparison and decrease analysis times, a mass-spectral-based-chemical-sensor was investigated. The chemical sensor used in this study, consists of an x, y, z robot autosampler that could be used to sample headspace, SPME or liquids. The autosampler is directly coupled to a mass spectrometer without a GC which results in analysis times of 1-3min/sample. Multivariate data analysis is then applied to the samples mass spectral fingerprint and comparison of samples profiles can be easily done with exploratory data analysis (PCA or HCA). The mass spectral fingerprints of different flavor formulations were easily compared against a target sample using principal component analysis (PCA). These results were validated by running the same samples with a GC/MS instrument. The GC/MS data was also analyzed using PCA. Overall, the fast and easy to interpret output of the chemical sensor was found to be an advantage over the traditional GC/MS analysis.