Application of Elemental Analysis in Food Quality and Authenticity

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Analytical Methods".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 October 2026 | Viewed by 125

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Key Laboratory of Information Traceability for Agricultural Products, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China, Institute of Agro-Products Safety and Nutrition, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310021, China
Interests: elementomics applied in plant-based foods for geographical origin, traceability, and quality control

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Guest Editor
REQUIMTE/LAQV, ESS, Polytechnic of Porto, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal
Interests: machine learning; analytical chemistry; food chemistry; environmental toxicology; sustainability; food safety; life cycle assessment; ICP-MS; heavy metals; contaminants of emerging concern; nanoparticles; cyanotoxins; LC-MS/MS; bioaccessibility; food digestion
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Food quality and authenticity are key to safeguarding food safety, protecting consumer rights and promoting fair trade. In recent years, elemental analysis has advanced rapidly in food quality assessment and authenticity authentication, evolving from conventional quantitative determination to an integrated cutting-edge system. Core technologies include stable isotope-multielement fingerprinting, elemental speciation analysis, AI-assisted chemometrics, green miniaturized rapid detection and multi-omics integration. These approaches enable geographical origin, sensitive food adulteration identification, nutritional quality evaluation and targeted food safety risk assessment, as well as organic or wild-cultivation verification. High-sensitivity mass spectrometry, portable LIBS/XRF and green sample preparation have improved detection efficiency and on-site applicability. Combined with machine learning and multi-omics fusion, elemental profiling has become a powerful tool to ensure food quality, combat food fraud and protect geographical indication products, supporting the development of food safety supervision and quality control.

Dr. Jing Nie
Dr. Edgar Pinto
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • stable isotopes
  • multi-elements
  • chemometrics
  • geographical origin
  • traceability
  • food risk assessment
  • food adulteration
  • food quality control
  • green and rapid detection method

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