GC-MS: Principle, Technique and its application in Food Science

GC/MS-a combination of two different analytical techniques, Gas Chromatography (GC) and Mass Spectrometry (MS), is used to analyze complex organic and biochemical mixtures. GC can separate volatile and semi-volatile compounds with great resolution, but it cannot identify them. MS can provide detailed structural information on most compounds such that they can be exactly identified and quantified, but it cannot readily separate them. Therefore, it was not surprising that the combination of the two techniques was suggested shortly after the development of GC in the mid-1950’s. Gas chromatography and mass spectrometry are, in many ways, highly compatible techniques. In both techniques, the sample is in the vapor phase, and both techniques deal with about the same amount of sample (typically less than 1 ng). This article was prepared with an aim to review different aspects GC-MS, such as principle, types, instrumentation and applications in food science.