Software-Assisted Matching of LC-GC Measurement Profiles

Mineral oils are a complex mix of mainly mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) and, in most cases, also of alkylated mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH). The chemical composition of these fractions can vary greatly depending on the origin and the production process. As the result of the production process of foods or packaging materials, these mineral oils can end up in our food products. In particular, the MOAH fraction has been classified as being hazardous to health and, in order to fulfil the prescribed threshold values, these days, an examination is conducted upon a regular basis of the content of MOSH and MOAH in food products. In order to do this, the chromatographic coupling technique of liquid and gas chromatography (LC-GC) is used.

If mineral oils are found in a food product, the focus is quickly placed on the question of the origin of these contaminants. Hump Inspector^® uses the LC-GC measurement profiles – often referred to as “Humps” – in order to set up mineral oil reference databases and then subsequently enable a software-supported comparison. In this manner, you can quickly and reliably determine the origin of the contaminants!

Analysis of Aromas and Aromatic Substances

The fragrance of a perfume or the aroma of a food product is of decisive importance with regards to its acceptance by the consumer. Well-founded know-how regarding the interaction of the substances which give their product the unmistakable aroma and/or fragrance is the key to the identification of the origin of undesirable aromas and/or undesirable odours or for the optimisation of the manufacturing process. In this regard, the gas chromatography – coupled with the mass spectrometry (GC/MS) – is the analytical technique of choice.

The Flavour & Fragrance module from labRATry is precisely specialised for the issues that arise in this area: Set-up of raw material mass spectra and chromatogram databases, the quality control for purchased or manufactured raw materials as well as the identification of the composition of complex aromas, e.g. in order to differentiate from one’s competitors.

Analysis of Complex Fingerprints

The analytical pyrolysis – coupled with gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) – is magnificently suited in order to characterise organic solids such as micro-plastics, synthetics, dyes, resins, textiles, coatings, oils, sediments, pulps and woods. The chromatographic fingerprints created in this manner enable detailed insight into the composition of the analytes. However, their complexity imposes high requirements on the data analysis.

The Pyrolysis module from labRATry offers the user of the pyrolysis GC/MS many possibilities for designing the data evaluation to be more efficient and more targeted. They include the highly-automated removal of background noise, drift correction (alignment), peak deconvolution, weight sample standardisation, but also the comparison of fingerprints directly with each other or against mass spectra and/or chromatogram databases that have been created. Furthermore, the principal component analysis (PCA) offers the option of identifying marker components. Please feel free to talk to us in order to find out more.

OPTIMIZATION OF QUALITY CONTROL

Customised Visualisation, Processing and Analysis of Measurement Data

labRATry already offers countless basic functions in order to quickly and precisely process chromatographic and mass spectrometric data. The flexible architecture enables fast customisation to your requirements. Find systematic differences and trends in complex datasets. By using statistical methods such as principal component analysis (PCA), cluster analysis, ANOVA and additional uni- and multivariate methods, you can accelerate your quality control and more quickly discover presumed “hidden” deviations between measured samples.