Recent developments in the estimation of trace toxic substances in food.

A survey has been made of about 120 papers appearing in the food literature in which mass spectrometry has been employed to measure toxic contaminant levels. The areas covered are, mycotoxins, nitrosamines, polyhalogenated hydrocarbons and other industrial contaminants. All the essential analytical details have been collected and the limitations of the present day methods are discussed. The reader may conclude that sometimes there is a lack of essential information and that a more standard reporting procedure for quantitative assays is needed.