State-of-the-art ion chromatographic determination of inorganic ions in food.

A review of the applications of ion chromatography (IC) to the determination of inorganic ions in food is presented. The most promising sample preparation techniques, such as accelerated solvent extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, solid-phase extraction, UV photolysis, microwave-oven digestion and pyrohydrolysis are discussed. Among the various inorganic anions, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus species and halides are widely determined in foods and to a lesser extent only, cyanide, carbonate, arsenic and selenium species are considered. IC determination of inorganic cations deals with ammonium ion, alkali, alkaline-earth, heavy and transition metals particularly and only a small amount of literature is found on the other ones, like aluminium and plantinum. A particular advantage of IC over traditional techniques is the simultaneous determination of several species.