Shimadzu and Axel Semrau have developed a solution to detect production-related contaminants [monochloropropane diol (MCPD) fatty acid ester, glycidyl fatty acid ester and free MCPD] in food containing fats and oils. The system consists of a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer and an automated sample management system. Since the direct detection of MCPD fatty acid ester is not yet possible due to the unmanageable number of isomers and the lack of suitable standards, the new solution uses an indirect method of determining the content of 2-MCPD, 3-MCPD and glycidol. This includes the transesterification of MCPD and glycidyl ester as well as the extraction of the resulting free MCPD and its derivatisation. There is a choice of the GCMS-TQ8040 NX or the GCMS-TQ8050 NX as part of the solution, and complete databases for food analysis are available for both models.
