Page 4 - Shimadzu Journal vol.7 Issue2

Insight from Customer

Interview with Professor Erich Leitner

We interviewed Professor Erich Leitner from Graz University of Technology in Austria. Professor Erich Leitner is a leading
expert on food quality. He is a major node in the local food network, having strong relations with local food producers
and farmers in the region. Leitner has been using Shimadzu and mass spectrometers for over a decade to study food.

Professor Leitner, thank you very much for spending some
time for this interview. At first, could you outline the
research and let us know what discovery and achievement
have been made so far?
The largest part of my work deals with the quality of food and food
contact materials. This complex topic can be looked from different
points of view. On one hand, we have the positive aspects as if the nice
smell of a good meal or a fine glass of wine. On the other hand, we
have the things neither consumer nor producers want to see in their
products. These are off flavors or even things which might have a negative
impact on human health like undesired residues from various sources
(e.g.: mineral oil contamination).
Therefore, we try to measure by analytical methods what humans
perceive during consumption of food. This task sounds quite simple, but
there are molecules, which are perceived by humans at incredible low
concentrations. In addition, the matrices are quite complex, so we are Why are you interested in this research? What is the goal?
facing analytical challenges in terms of sensitivity and selectivity as well.
I think I am one of the blessed persons who have the luck to combine
job and hobby. I am obsessed about quality of food (however you may
define it) and I definitely want to understand why a product is good or
not. Finally, you are ending up in analytical chemistry trying to define
the quality parameters. Therefore, the final goal for me should be to
predict the quality of a product by analytical techniques. Nevertheless, it
is very important for me to stress out that we still need humans for the
final judgment, but analytical methods can greatly support this goal.

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