Use of an “Intelligent Knife” (iknife), Based on the Rapid Evaporative Ionization Mass Spectrometry Technology, for Authenticity Assessment of Pistachio Samples

Abstract

The iknife (intelligent knife) is the coupling between rapid evaporative ionization mass spectrometry and an electrosurgical knife. The technique is based on a fast evaporation of a sample, yielding gaseous molecular ions of the major components, thus obtaining a holistic profile, usable as univocal fingerprinting. Since its introduction by Professor Takats of Imperial College of London, it was mainly used for in vivo biological tissues analysis since, differently from desorption ionization methods, it does not require any sample preparation. The aim of the present research is to extend the applicability and the advantages of such a technique to food samples for geography evaluation and authenticity assessment. For this purpose, a database containing MS profiles of authentic samples need to be created. The application here described focus on the profiling of pistachio samples, taking into account that adulterated Sicilian Bronte pistachio can be found on the market, due to its high cost.

Lipid profile of fish species by liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry and a novel linear retention index database

“…In particular, a total of 28 TAGs were added and the LRI value of 6 species were corrected, namely EpLnP, EpLP, OOPd and OPPd which are eluted earlier with respect to previous hypothesis, as well as EpOO and SSL which are eluted later. Hence, the implemented database could be successfully used at both intra‐ and interlaboratory level for supporting the identification of nonpolar lipids in sea organisms, as it was already assessed for vegetable oils [26,27], where the identification was univocal for almost all peaks.…”

Exploration of Rapid Evaporative-Ionization Mass Spectrometry as a Shotgun Approach for the Comprehensive Characterization of Kigelia Africana (Lam) Benth. Fruit

“…Taking into account the novelty of the REIMS ionization source, which most commonly focused on lipid compounds [13][14][15][16][17][18][20][21][22][23][24][25][26]31,32], some additional experiments were necessary to confirm the identification of these phenols. In particular, the polyphenol isoquercetrin, available as pure standard, was infused by the syringe pump into the REIMS source to elucidate the ionization mechanism in positive polarity.…”

“…In this work, for the first time full metabolomics work was carried out by a shotgun mass spectrometry (MS) approach, which exploits an ambient ionization MS source, which vaporize and ionize molecules directly from the sample, without any sample pre-treatment. In particular, the rapid evaporative-ionization mass spectrometry (REIMS) source [13][14][15][16][17] linked with an electrosurgical hand piece [18][19][20] was employed. This innovative technique allows us to obtain an immediate profiling of different samples without any requirement of sample preparation or pre-chromatographic separation.…”

Rapid detection of green‐pea adulteration in pistachio nuts using Raman spectroscopy and chemometrics

“…Rigano et al . (2019) developed an iknife (intelligent knife)‐coupled REIMS (rapid evaporative ionization mass spectrometry) method for determining the authenticity of pistachio nuts based on geographical origin 13 . Boukid et al .…”

“…10 Several studies have documented the determination of adulteration in pistachio nuts. Rigano et al (2019) developed an iknife (intelligent knife)-coupled REIMS (rapid evaporative ionization mass spectrometry) method for determining the authenticity of pistachio nuts based on geographical origin. 13 Boukid et al (2019) utilized the physical and chemical features of pistachio nuts (Pistacia vera L.) for geographical origin discrimination.…”