Gas Chromatography

This chapter provides a concise survey of some theoretical aspects of gas chromatography, in the light of its more recent and future trends, in particular applied to food analysis. The aim is to deal with some important points that are sometimes undervalued, concerning gas chromatography in the food field, while at the same time looking at the practicalities of some applications. The first part provides an overview of several performance-related parameters and critical aspects, of instrumental configurations and novel trends, so as to en-able the reader to follow the second part, which mainly focuses on some critical aspects concerning the identification of unknowns, and reliable and accurate quantitation approaches for sensitive analytes (as in the case of a food processing contaminant, i.e., furan in roasted matrices). The discussion also looks at one-step on-line analytical approaches, the so-called Total Analysis Systems (TAS) and novel instrumental configurations and solutions aimed at: (a) speeding up analytical separations and sample throughput (Fast-GC, Ultra Fast-GC and Fast Enantioselective-GC), (b) clarifying sample origin, and (c) dealing wih the com-plexity of certain matrices, adopting multidimensional separation methods (MDGC and Comprehensive Two-Dimensional GC-GCxGC) and advanced data in-terpretation approaches.