Chiral separations in food analysis

Analysis and determination of enantiomers is attractive in food chemistry, as, for example, the presence of D-amino acids can indicate adulteration, as only the natural (L)-isomer should be present in fruit juices. We highlight the importance of analyzing enantiomers in food, describe the general principle of enantiomer resolution and review the main applications in the past five years in food and beverage analysis. We consider high-performance separation methods (gas and liquid chromatography) and recently developed miniaturized tools (capillary electromigration and nano liquid chromatography). (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.