The textbook "Inorganic Chemical Analysis: Applications in Food and Beverages" examines analysis and detection techniques in the field of food science and technology. It is primarily aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students in Food Science Schools, but also at a wide range of students from other fields (Chemistry, Pharmacy, Agriculture, Biology, and Environmental Science) who use inorganic analysis to determine the chemical composition of natural and technical materials. It is generally aimed - and we hope it proves useful - to those scientists working in the food industry or involved in academic and industrial research in food science and technology using modern and specialized analytical instruments.

In the last two decades, analytical instruments have undergone a rapid development, which has dramatically changed the techniques and methods of analysis for the identification and quantitative determination of food components, for the evaluation of product quality and authenticity, the detection of adulteration, and other important issues in the food industry that concern consumers and require special attention from food manufacturers. Food safety from contaminants is perhaps the greatest concern of consumers, and the scientific community has established relevant legislation with maximum allowable limits that require specialized analytical instruments and sensitive and selective techniques for their identification and determination.

This textbook covers the basic principles of inorganic analysis in a volume consisting of fifteen chapters, distinguishing molecular spectroscopy (UV, Vis, MIR, NIR, fluorescence, phosphorescence) from atomic spectroscopy (flame photometry, atomic absorption spectroscopy) and non-spectroscopic techniques (polarimetry, nephelometry). The optical methods of analysis are followed by chapters on nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS), and chromatographic separations with gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC).

Each chapter includes theory, organology, illustrative examples, and concludes with a bibliographic review of research work on analysis methods for nutrients and contaminants in food and beverages. The textbook is accompanied by a Supplement (e-learning) that includes supportive supplementary units of the printed part, as well as five additional autonomous chapters that provide the necessary knowledge regarding literature search, food sampling procedures, method selection, as well as elements of metrology, chemometrics, and statistical processing of analytical data.