To ensure food safety and safeguard human health, the characterization of the elemental composition of a wide range of food types is required. The possibility of measuring all the required elements with a single configuration using the Agilent 7700x ICP-MS is investigated. The determination of trace and major elements simultaneously is possible due to the 9 orders of magnitude provided by the detector. Collision cell technology with a single cell gas, helium, is used to eliminate interferences generated by the plasma and the sample matrix. The use of a discrete sampling system to increase sample throughput is also evaluated.
The document describes a method using the Agilent 7700x ICP-MS equipped with the Octopole Reaction System (ORS) operating in Helium mode. This configuration allows for the simultaneous determination of trace and major elements in various food types while effectively suppressing interferences generated by the plasma and sample matrix.
To further increase throughput, an Agilent ISIS-DS discrete sampling system was evaluated. The study demonstrates that this combination enables a single analytical run to measure a wide range of elements across varying concentration levels with excellent agreement against certified reference materials.
The procedure requires 250 mg of sample digested with 3 mL of nitric acid and 1 mL of hydrogen peroxide.
Using the ISIS-DS system reduces the total analysis time per sample to 1.2 minutes.
The resulting samples contained up to 5 g/L of matrix.