Restricted access materials in food analyses

Determining contaminants and residues in food matrices is essential to ensure consumer safety and product quality. Analytical methods are employed for this purpose, with sample preparation representing a critical step that must be carefully performed. Restricted access materials (RAMs) have emerged as valuable tools to simplify this process, minimizing the number of steps while improving analyte recovery. Among their major advantages is the ability to exclude macromolecules (like proteins, lipids, and sugars) from the sample, while simultaneously extracting the analytes. This results in the reduction of time consumption, costs, waste generation, and sample handling. This review discusses the application of RAMs in the important food matrices for the analysis of pesticides, mycotoxins, drugs, and metals. The strengths and limitations of different RAM-based approaches are highlighted, demonstrating how these materials were obtained and contributed to the development of suitable analytical methods for assessing food quality and safety.