Advanced gas chromatography and mass spectrometry technologies for fatty acids and triacylglycerols analysis

Single dimension gas chromatography (GC) is widely used for the analysis of a broad variety of lipid samples of a multitude of origins, most often used as a GC method in combination with mass spectrometry (MS). However, adequate characterisation and accurate identification of fatty acids (FAs) and triacylglycerols (TAGs) remain challenging due to their complexity, incomplete resolution on the separation dimension often confounded by sample matrix, and sometimes insufficient MS domain differentiation. The higher resolution of multidimensional separation enables improved quality separations that should translate to better reliability of identification and more precise analytical characterisation of major and minor abundance FA isomers that contribute nutrition and health benefits, and for compounds that can be used for medical and pharmaceutical purposes. Development of advanced multidimensional chromatographic strategies incorporating multiple separations coupled with different detection tools, including multistage-MS (MSⁿ) methods for FA in various foods, environmental and biological samples is described.