Triple quadrupole LC/MS is one of the most broadly applicable of all MS techniques. One of the markets in which it is widely used is food safety. There are a range of food testing applications for which the technique is amenable, which will help drive solid growth in this market.

No single analytical technique is capable of, let alone ideal for, detecting all potential food contaminants. However, triple quadrupole LC/MS, often combined with solid phase extraction, offers the sensitivity, accuracy and specificity that is needed to detect low levels of potential contaminants in the complex sample matrices of most foods. This makes it one of several analytical techniques that are used to address broad swaths of the food testing market.

Pesticides are the compound most commonly tested for in food using triple quadrupole LC/MS. There are more than 850 pesticides, and while triple quadrupole LC/MS is not ideally suited to detecting and quantitating all of them, it is advantageous for monitoring many of them. Veterinary drug residues are another class of contaminants commonly tested for using triple quadrupole LC/MS. Some of these drugs are legal for use, while others are banned in certain countries. There are a wide variety of other food contaminants tested for using triple quadrupole LC/MS, but none has received more attention recently than melamine. Melamine was found to be added to various food products in order to fool less specific tests, such as Kjeldahl for nitrogen content (see IBO 10/15/08). Triple quadrupole LC/MS has now largely replaced Kjeldahl for such applications.

The global market demand for triple quadrupole LC/MS for food safety applications will be about $60 million in 2010. End-users include government labs like the FDA and private organizations such as contract testing labs. Although a small portion of this demand is for the most sensitive and most expensive triple quadrupole LC/MS models, the vast majority of demand is from the large volume of routine testing. Therefore, most food safety applications utilize more modestly priced systems with decent performance characteristics. Demand for triple quadrupole LC/MS should be fairly consistent with high single-digit annual growth for the foreseeable future as developing countries adopt Western food safety standards.

AB SCIEX is the largest vendor of triple quadrupole LC/MS instruments, which include its popular Q-Trap models, although it tends to be more focused on the pharmaceutical industry than its competitors. Agilent, which entered the triple quadrupole LC/MS market in 2006 (see IBO 1/31/06), has also been successful in the food safety market. Waters and Thermo Fisher Scientific are the other major vendors in the triple quadrupole LC/MS market, as well as specifically in the food safety segment. It is also of note that Shimadzu recently entered the triple quadruple LC/MS market and is positioned to capture significant vendor share in the near term.

LC/MS in Food Safety at a Glance:

Leading Suppliers

• AB SCIEX

• Agilent Technologies

• Waters

Largest Applications

• Pesticides

• Veterinary drug residues

• Mycotoxins

Instrument Cost

• $250,000–$500,000