Flavor, Fragrance & Odor Analysis edited by Ray Marsili

Ray Marsili, head of the Marsili Consulting Group has compiled and edited a second edition of his valuable book, entitled “Flavor, Fragrance and Odor Analysis“. The book is published in hardback by CRC press and is available from Amazon for the (rather eye watering) price of £94.05.

In a field that is changing rapidly, this book is good, in that it focuses on the newer techniques that are now being adopted by mainstream labs, Worldwide.

As it happens, I have a spare copy that I am prepared to part with – in return for a £10 donation to the British Heart Foundation.

If you are interested, contact me on enquiries@anatune.co.uk before 5pm, Friday 10th February.

If I have more than one taker, I will put the names into hat the following Monday and ask Sue Roach to select the lucky winner.

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These will be held at Anatune’s Cambridge laboratory on the 17th, 18th and 19th April 2012.

The GERSTEL 1D/2D  System has been designed from scratch to be the definitive GC-MS tool for the rapid identification of trace, taste and odour compounds in all kinds of complex matrices.

This workshop marks the launch of the system in the UK and Ireland, and will be conducted by Dr. Nobo Ockai, GERSTEL Japan’s technical director.

The series of one-day workshops will comprise classroom and laboratory sessions and will provide a clear understanding of how the system works and how it can greatly facilitate the analysis of taste, aroma and malodours, whenever and wherever the need to measure these compounds occurs.

Places on the workshops are limited, so please book early to be sure of a place.

The charge for these workshops is £35 + VAT and includes a buffet lunch, refreshments and materials.

To book your place email susan.roach@anatune.co.uk or call Sue on 01954 212909.

If you require overnight accomodation, Sue will be happy to help with this.

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The theme of the conference is chromatography sample preparation and automation (GC, LC and MS).  The program will include talks on new instrumentation from Anatune and its partners, as well as talks from analysts who are putting the instrumentation to work.

The two day, residential format will give you plenty of opportunity to interact with both speakers and delegates.

So far, the following people have agreed to present:

• Dr Hans-Gerd Janssen, Unilever Research, the Netherlands
• Dr Kieren Kilcawley, TEAGASC, Fermoy, Ireland
• Dr Klaus Buckendahl of Sigma Aldrich, Germany
• Dr Eike Kleine-Benne of GERSTEL GmbH, Germany
• Paul Roberts & Dan Carrier of Anatune Ltd, UK

Several other organisations have offered speakers, as yet, unidentified, including Teledyne Tekmar and the UK Health and Safety Executive.

The events team at Down Hall has offered us a very favourable package and so, once again, we are able to keep the charges at the same modest level as in previous years.

The two-day rate is £320 + VAT and this includes food and accommodation as well. If you book before 1st March, we are offering an early-bird discount and you will only pay £290 + VAT.

To attend on one day only, costs £210 + VAT and again, if you book before 1st of March you will only pay £180 + VAT.

If you want to attend – please book early as places are limited and we expect this to be a sell-out.

To book (or for more details), email: enquiries@anatune.co.uk or call Susan Roach on +44 (0)1954 212909.

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We were discussing sample derivatisation this week and Andrew Golby summed up his experience (and that of many other analysts) as follows:

There are three things I do know about derivatisation; it uses nasty chemicals, it’s a pain in the butt and it never works properly!

Gas Chromatography is a simple, useful, inexpensive analytical tool, but it is applicability is limited to analytes of moderate polarity that are volatile and thermally stable. Its usefulness can be extended by reacting analytes with derivatisation agents to form less polar derivatives that are more stable and more volatile and that can be analysed by GC.

This is fine, but there is a penalty to pay in terms of the work needed at the bench to prepare the samples prior to analysis and as AG pointed out; the reagents are usually toxic and difficult to handle. If you have more than a few samples to run, the work is soul destroying and, unless you are careful to treat every sample exactly the same, the results can be all over the place.

Modern laboratory robots (like the GERSTEL MultiPurpose Sampler), make light work of sample derivatisation and addresses all three shortcomings that Andrew highlights:

You and your staff gain from greatly reduced exposure to nasty stuff, robots are much better than people at doing exactly the same thing time after time after time and, unlike people, robots don’t get bored with routine tasks.

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