Abstract

This is the fifteenth ASU to review literature relevant to clinical and biological specimens, foods and beverages. Two of the original three writers are still involved in preparing this Update and the other authors have also been part of the team for several years. However, in accepting a new role within the MAFF Central Science Laboratory Linda Owen will no longer be able to write for the review and we shall miss her valuable contribution. Although there have been many changes and important innovations during the fifteen years most have been gradual developments which were discerned after a few years' consolidation. As far as this year is concerned, those items which we identified in the last review—in vivo analyses by XRF, high resolution ICP-MS and electrospray MS—are featured again. Perhaps the most exciting of the emerging techniques is capillary electrophoresis for separation/speciation coupled to a detection system such as ICP-MS. The potential of these approaches has been hinted at in the last year or so but, with the development of effective coupling technology, results are now beginning to appear.