Capillary Electrophoresis in Food Analysis

Abstract

Abstract The development and application of faster and more powerful analytical methodologies in Food Science is essential to face the demands from regulatory agencies, official laboratories, and consumers. In this field, capillary electrophoresis (CE) is nowadays a well‐established separation technique for food analysis that possesses exceptional properties related to high analysis speed and separation efficiencies combined with the small samples and reagent requirements. Moreover, it is a very versatile technique since different CE modes can be employed for a broad range of applications and separation challenges. In fact, CE should be considered as the first option when dealing with highly polar, charged, or chiral analytes. In the past two decades, a high amount of research work has been published, demonstrating the high potential of CE to analyze different food components in a broad variety of food matrices. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the use of CE for food analysis including a summary of the characteristics of the CE modes and the main detectors mostly employed in this field. Besides, a wide view of the latest applications of CE in food analysis (2021–2023) is also provided, demonstrating the exceptional possibilities of this analytical technique.