NMR screening in the quality control of food and nutraceuticals

Abstract Modern research in food science and nutrition requires innovative strategies using advanced analytical analysis. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) has proven to be a robust analytical tool for the screening and analysis of complex mixtures such as body fluids, food and beverages. The next logical application of NMR based screening methods is for food quality control. Here we show a fully automated quality control analysis of fruit juice and wine. This analysis requires the user to have minimal working knowledge of NMR and delivers reports with results a person untrained in NMR analysis can easily understand. However, to produce reliable results, substantial effort in validation of quantification and statistical analysis is needed initially. These efforts are rewarded with rapid highly reproducible screening capabilities. Further application of the same principles is under investigation for nutraceuticals. Very promising results obtained to date suggest that NMR will provide a needed new analytical tool for product assessment of these highly complex materials.