A review on applications of chemiluminescence detection in food analysis.

There is an increasing interest by consumers for high quality food products with a specified composition. Suitable analytical techniques are needed for the quality control. Chemiluminescence (CL) detection has become quite a useful tool in the last years due to its simplicity, low cost and high sensitivity. Moreover, no external light source is needed. CL is often described as a dark-field technique: the absence of strong background light level reduces the background signal and leads to improved detection limits. Due to these advantages, CL methods have been widely applied to food analysis in recent years. Navas and Jiménez had reviewed the CL methods in food analysis in 1996. The present review covers the papers since 1996, including the CL determinations of nitrogen containing components, sugars, chemical preservatives, metals, hormonal anabolics and metabolites, and other compounds in foods. 122 references have been cited.