Multidimensional liquid chromatography approaches for analysis of food contaminants

In the past years, multidimensional liquid chromatography became very widespread for the complete separation of non-volatile analytes in complex matrices. The main advantage of these techniques, especially when coupled with mass spectrometry, is the enhancement of separation power or peak capacity, due to an increase in selectivity and sensitivity of the two systems. With respect to conventional one-dimensional liquid chromatography, multidimensional liquid chromatography allows us to resolve potential co-elutions and also minimize the matrix effect thus providing a more accurate quantitative analysis. This review provides an overview on the presence of contaminants in food, the main sources of contamination, and finally, the techniques used to reveal their presence. All different modes, investigated so far on this topic for heart-cutting and comprehensive techniques were described. Advantages and disadvantages of each method are reported in addition to the main food applications.