Ensuring Food Safety: Optimizing Heavy-Metal Analysis

Ingredients, additives, and final food products are all rigorously tested for trace metal contamination that may occur during cultivation, processing or storage. It is crucial to accurately analyze low ppb levels of inorganic contaminants such as arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), and others using ICP-MS. 

The US FDA EAM 4.7 method outlines two sample digestion methodologies and this webinar will outline them in detail and discuss how digesting samples at temperatures up to 250°C can enhance digestion efficiency. Application examples with spiked baby food matrices will be provided, with particular focus on the accurate determination of arsenic, which can be affected by residual carbon in ICP-MS analysis.

Key Learning Objectives:

• Challenges and solutions in acid digestion of food samples for ICP-MS analysis
• FDA EAM method 4.7: the two procedures for microwave digestion
• How to choose the suitable microwave system
• The arsenic enhancement effect in ICP-MS analysis and how to overcome it

Presenter:  Helga Gschwind

Helga Gschwind is a Market Development Manager with Anton Paar USA focused on developing new markets for analytical, process and quality control instrumentation within the food industry. She received her engineering degree in food science from the National University of Lujan, Argentina and has worked for over 20 years in the food and beverage industry in quality, production, and engineering areas.