Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy in Food Analysis

Abstract

The adulteration, quality control, food safety, and traceability are serious problems in the food industry and hold great importance for the customers. During the last years, laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis by direct measurement of the optical emission from laser-induced plasma has been the subject of research in food analysis, mainly because this technique presents a fast and cost effective method. The purpose of this article is to present an overview of the progress made by our research group in food analysis. Specific examples are given to illustrate the ability of this technique to carry out a rapid, qualitative, and quantitative analysis of different food samples. The implementation of combination of LIBS technique with mathematical modeling concretely neural networks algorithms, which have opened up new possibilities, are also discussed with available experimental data and relevant results.