Dr. Ellis noted that many analysts in the food industry are not familiar with mass spectrometry or they have misconceptions about the difficulty and expense of using the technology. Many believe that mass spec is difficult to use and have therefore not tried it. “They were surprised at how easy it is and how quickly it could solve analytical challenges like finding unknown contaminants,” said Dr. Ellis.
LC/MS/MS is also very effective in uncovering product dilutions. Visitors to the lab could see an example run on EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), a product that is sometimes diluted prior to sale. The LS/MS/MS method can detect dilutions as small as 1 percent.
“The mobile lab created an excellent opportunity for visitors to see our chromatography columns in action, something which is often challenging because we do not make the instruments themselves,” said Phil Koerner, PhD.
The tour even provided access to college students. The stop in Jacksonville was in the backyard of Florida State College, which has a food safety curriculum. “We met with two professors as well as some of their students,” said Dr. Ellis. “One of the areas they were particularly interested in was sample prep, which can be difficult with many food matrices. We were able to show them some new techniques they had not learned about yet.” The tour also visited the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, where 45 students and staff came to see the lab. “The levels of curiosity and interaction we saw with the students was surprising, inspiring, even heartening,” commented Dr. Ellis. “I feel more confident and optimistic for the future generation of scientists after meeting so many of them on our tour.”
Mass-tastic Voyage travelers Drs. Ellis and Koerner were most surprised by how much they personally enjoyed the tour. “It’s unheard of to get that much interaction with that many different lab analysts in such a short period of time, and everybody learned a lot,” explained Dr. Koerner. “The environment is so much better than a trade show or customer visit, because we actually had systems running analyses.”
For food safety researchers and analysts who were not able to see the tour firsthand, expertise and resources from AB SCIEX and Phenomenex are available online at their rapid response site.
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