Supercritical Fluid Extraction

Abstract

In this chapter, we highlight the basic concepts behind the use of SFE to select molecules present in food matrices, e.g., carotenoids, essential oils, waxes, and phenolic compounds. Also, we highlight the SFE equipment setup, the methods for process intensification, and mass transfer mechanisms involved in the process, besides the advantages and drawbacks. Supercritical fluids have been suggested as a powerful tool to improve the performance of analytical methods in terms of reduced steps for sample preparation and waste generation, besides enhanced precision and recovery of analytes detected. The offline association of SFE with analytical detection has been elucidated for decades. Currently, many efforts have been made to reach the miniaturization of equipment as well as the online hyphenation between extraction and analytical detection with supercritical fluids as a novel method for sample preparation to detect food analytes in real time with accuracy and robustness.