Latest News and Application Notes

Few things in the world bring people together like food. Flavor and aroma are often central pillars of a good time. Whether it’s developing a meat substitute or characterizing the subtle intricacies of liquor, the study of food, flavor, and aromas is critical to so many industries that touch everyone around the world.

The analysis of peppers for flavor profiles and food volatiles is not new. With a wide array of varieties, peppers find uses in not just food markets, but also pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Analyzing peppers isn't new. Finding ways to increase the sustainability and "green" qualities of those analyses, however, is an ongoing challenge, and one that Micaela Galletta, Mariosimone Zoccali, Donato Creti, Luigi Mondello, and Peter Q. Tranchida tackled in a recent study published in Green Analytical Chemistry.

How do you handle the analysis and characterization of a complex sample like whisky*? In a recent interview with eFood Lab International, Dr. Geraint (Taff) Morgan of the Applied Science & Technology Group at the Open University, UK, says a 1D quadrupole GC-MS is sufficient for routine analysis, but when he really wants to dig into the non-target analysis of a complex sample, he turns to GC-TOFMS and GCxGC-TOFMS, such as that employed by the LECO Pegasus^® BT 4D.

If you make the same thing the same way every time, you would expect to get the same results. But anyone working in a quality control lab knows just how much variability there can be on the same line, especially when working with organic materials such as those used to make whiskey. Small changes in temperature or atmospheric humidity, or the quality of the initial mash or final barrels can change the aroma profiles of the final products, and the aroma profiles themselves can be the first indicator of a problem on the production line if they can be analyzed and characterized with enough speed and confidence.

With ever-increasing demands on your time and resources, optimizing your workflow is essential. Learn how state of the art instrument and software solutions come together, to enhance your one- and two-dimensional gas chromatography applications (GC-MS and GCxGC-MS) in a collection of short webinars presented on Wednesday, November 30. These webinars will be presented twice for ease of international audiences.

As a consulting laboratory, your reputation is one of the most important factors of your business. The ability to not only provide accurate results with confidence and helpful assistance and education in a timely manner, but also to communicate it to your clients is essential to continued success. Ray Marsili, owner of Marsili Consulting Group and a Food-Flavor Chemist, knew the instruments he procured for his lab could very well spell the difference between success or struggle.

Halloween is a special time of year, and whether tricks or treats come into play, there's a lot of fun to be had by sharing and enjoying a host of candy products! Learn how LECO's state of the art solutions, like the Pegasus^® BT GC-TOFMS and ChromaTOF^® Sync data alignment software, can help you unwrap the aroma profile and chemical composition of your candy.

When it comes to comparing sets of sample data, being able to synchronize your results can help you get a broad overview at a glance. A visual comparison of your chromatograms may not be enough, especially not when your analytes are coeluting. ChromaTOF^® Sync is a powerful new data processing tool that will gather all of your data into one place, making it easy to highlight trends and spot significant and subtle differences between your samples.

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) has long been an invaluable tool in a chemist's belt. With its ability to tease apart the compounds in a sample, identifying even trace analytes, it is able to perform specific tests and pinpoint what, exactly, is in the material being analyzed. But what can you do when GC-MS isn't enough?

Around the world and across the board, prices are rising. As we battle with the realities of post-COVID supply chain issues and international wars, companies struggle to keep their own costs low. One unscrupulous way to do this is to use lower-quality ingredients. The average customer may not be able to notice the difference between a genuine or artificial citrus essential oil, for example, but being able to determine the constituents of the oil is vital for determining its quality and safety, as most citrus essential oil uses involve direct contact with humans.