Mass spectrometry: principles and instrumentation

Mass Spectrometry (MS) has become the major analytical technology, with the biggest market share and the fastest growth rate as it offers important advantages, that is, sensitivity and specificity of detection, analyte structural information and (potentially) unambiguous detection, and quantitation of analytes. MS is the method of choice for a series of food analyses required by regulatory authorities, the industrial sector, and most importantly, it is considered the workhorse in the development of novel methods. The chapter describes basics of MS and applications in the analysis of foods in targeted and untargeted mode (metabolomics).