Ionic liquids as a tool for determination of metals and organic compounds in food analysis

Ionic liquids (ILs) are non-molecular solvents, which are mainly characterized as possessing low melting points, low-to-negligible vapor pressures, and high thermal stability. Their unique solvation properties, coupled to the fact that they can be structurally tailored for specific applications, have increased study of ILs in many areas of fundamental and applied chemistry. Thus, ILs have successfully been utilized as novel solvents in different extraction and microextraction schemes in recent years, but mainly with environmental samples.Food samples are quite complicated matrices from an analytical point of view. They contain a large range of chemical substances, and sometimes they also have a high fat content. Even with the most advanced analytical techniques, food sampling and food-sample preparation prior to the analytical determination are labor-intensive and time-consuming, and normally require relatively large amounts of organic solvents.In this review, we summarize the most recent analytical developments aimed at employing ILs as a tool in food analysis. We discuss practical applications to determine metals and organic compounds in food samples of quite different natures, with special emphasis to the extraction step at which the IL is introduced, and the advantages of the IL-based methods developed over conventional extraction methods.