Rapid and real-time analysis of volatile compounds released from food using infrared and laser spectroscopy

Abstract The analysis of gases exhaled in human breath is of great interest in medical research for assessing patient health. Foods also ‘breathe’, releasing volatile compounds whose composition and concentration can indicate the properties of the food. Recently, food metabolomics has seen rapid development, with advanced methods, such as GC-MS, used to analyze volatiles and identify biomarkers. On the contrary, this review focuses on a rapid and real-time analysis method- optical spectroscopy, which can be used in situ , and do not require sampling, offering opportunities for both online monitoring of food processing operations and in-vivo sensing of food properties during consumption from their volatile components. We provide an overview of recent advances in food volatiles analysis using infrared and laser spectroscopy. We have addressed not only the opportunities of these methods but also the challenges of these sensing instruments for real applications, highlighting the trends and needs for future researches.