Clinical and biological materials, foods and beverages

This is the fifteenth ASU to review literature relevant to clinical and bio logical specimens, foods and beverages. Two of the original three writers a re still involved in preparing this Update and the other authors have also been part of the team for several years. However, in accepting a new role w ithin the MAFF Central Science Laboratory Linda Owen will no longer be able to write for the review and we shall miss her valuable contribution. Altho ugh there have been many changes and important innovations during the fifte en years most have been gradual developments which were discerned after a f ew years' consolidation. As far as this year is concerned, those items whic h we identified in the last review-in vivo analyses by XRF, high resolution ICP-MS and electrospray MS-are featured again. Perhaps the most exciting o f the emerging techniques is capillary electrophoresis for separation/speci ation coupled to a detection system such as ICP-MS. The potential of these approaches has been hinted at in the last year or so but, with the developm ent of effective coupling technology, results are now beginning to appear.