High-performance capillary electrophoresis for food quality evaluation

This chapter offered a comprehensive overview of both principles and applications of HPCE techniques. CE represents a powerful analytical tool that is widely applied in food quality and safety, and is also a novel interesting approach in foodomics. Starting with a brief introduction on its evolution from gel electrophoresis to microchip-CE devices, basic principles, detailed general procedures, and detection systems were described. Different CE separation modes were also summarized to show the wide range of applications of this technique in food analysis. Advantages and limitations of each CE mode and new technical improvements were also reported. After the general section, recent application progress in different types of foods were considered. In the first part, applications were divided into solid and liquid foods (vegetable and animal origin) and other foods (honey, food supplements, and baby foods). In the second part, the analysis of certain food additives and contaminants was discussed. The last section of this chapter introduced foodomics applications. The chapter provided the most up-to-date information of the last decade in food quality and safety evaluation by CE.