Day 1 is in the books. What a great start to the 1^st Annual GCxGC Symposium!

When you make an investment, you want to know how it works. All of the bells and whistles, the clever shortcuts, and the changes that make it different from the last instrument you used are important to know for the most efficient and effective use of your new gas chromatography mass spectrometer. LECO has always offered in-person training classes and on-site lab visits, but in today's changing world with travel restrictions and social distancing, how can you learn about your Pegasus® BT while staying safe?

In Europe, food contamination by Mineral Oil Saturated Hydrocarbons (MOSH) and Mineral Oil Aromatic Hydrocarbons (MOAH) is a growing concern and one that is starting to gain attention in North America. There is not enough data yet to know for sure if all MOSH and MOAH contamination is harmful, but some MOSH has been proven carcinogenic, and some MOAH have caused complications in lab mice and selective build-up in the human body. In order to better understand the effects of these hydrocarbons, it is first important to determine the presence and types of MOSH and MOAH in food samples.

How efficient is your workflow when it comes to food samples? Are you sure you're seeing everything your sample has to offer? Learn how LECO has been expanding what is possible when it comes to food safety analyses with a free series of webinars.

All of these webinars are now available as on-demand recordings on our website.

By Maggie Gill, Keele University, UK

May 20 is the UN World Honey Bee Day. The honey bee is an important pollinator species that contributes an estimated $15 billion a year to the US economy through crop pollination and £690 million to the UK economy. Honey bees are also important wild pollinators and play a key role in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services in many ecosystems.

Contamination of food by mineral oil hydrocarbons such as mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH) has been a growing concern since 2012, when the European Food Safety Authority flagged them as a potential health concern. While the main concerns are bioaccumulation from MOSH and the carcinogenicity of MOAH, data on consumer exposure is incomplete. Prevailing wisdom suggests we make every effort to minimize MOSH/MOAH contamination, however, MOSH/MOAH analysis is not easy. Though there is a standard European GC-FID method, countries are still discussing GC-MS standard methods for MOSH/MOAH analysis. The existing methods struggle to deconvolute the various hydrocarbons.

Enter the LECO Pegasus® BT 4D with GCxGC-TOFMS.

LECO Europe has partnered with SeparationScience to create a Food Testing Applications E-Book. This free download provides one easy location for a variety of food testing resources.

LECO understands that taking time away from your lab to visit our headquarters in Saint Joseph, Michigan, is not always a possibility. Travel alone is a hassle, much less the downtime of being away from your lab and the expense of all of the arrangements. Unfortunately, even our bench-top Pegasus® GC-TOFMS is a bit too large to slip into a carry-on for an in-person experience. Webinars and virtual demonstrations have come a long way in bringing new technology closer for your inspection, but there's nothing like getting to kick the tires and have a hands-on experience to really know what you could be adding to your lab. What’s a busy lab manager to do?