Our research aims to determine the elemental composition of different food samples using different spectroscopic devices to, for example, control the quality of food samples. Besides ICP-MS, our laboratory can also perform elemental analysis of the digested food samples with ICP-OES, atomic absorption spectroscopy, and ion chromatography. However, we can also perform elemental analysis with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry.

Current experimental challenges that we face are mostly in the sample preparation process. Our goal is to improve the sample throughput and to optimize the cleaning procedure to minimize any carryover of the sample. The information in the article is about sample homogenization, acid digestion, and elemental analysis to better understand critical procedures for sample preparation and subsequent analysis as we highlight important steps, suggestions, and limitations of the entire process.

We will focus on the optimization of the entire processes for samples such as vegetables, wine, ice creams, E-liquids, and in the future, even inorganic samples, which require different sample preparation techniques.