Back to food basics: LC-MS/MS essentials
A webinar series for mass spec scientists and a practical training resource for lab managers building confident food testing teams
Welcome to LC-MS/MS essentials: back to food basics, a webinar series designed to refresh, reinforce, and rebuild essential skills in food safety testing. Whether you're just starting out or you're an experienced user of mass spectrometry, this series covers the critical foundations of analytical methods we rely on to ensure safety throughout the food supply chain.
Designed with lab managers in mind, this series also serves as a structured training resource to onboard new analysts, deliver refresher learning, and build consistent competency across the team.
Agenda
Now Available
Food first steps: A roundtable discussion for new analysts
Host: Craig Butt, Senior Technical Manager, Food and Environmental
Panelists: Holly Lee, Carlos Bueno, Jianru Stahl-Zeng
This roundtable brings together food testing experts to help new analysts navigate common challenges in the lab. Through shared experiences and practical advice, the session covers troubleshooting, matrix interferences, and regulatory readiness.
Lab managers can run this session as a mentoring forum and embed topics into team huddles to build troubleshooting confidence and audit readiness.
What you will learn:
- Insights from food testing experts on real-world lab challenges.
- How to troubleshoot common issues and manage matrix interferences through techniques such as QTRAP acquisition.
- Key steps for regulatory compliance, including documentation and validation.
- Lab managers can translate takeaways into action items (matrix libraries, documentation checklists, readiness reviews).
Now on-demand
Catch up on episodes 1, 2, and 3
Food 101: Introduction to food testing and LC-MS/MS
Speaker: Holly Lee, Staff Scientist, Food, SCIEX
The session introduced the fundamentals of the food industry and highlighted the importance of food testing in the context of evolving regulations and consumer expectations. It also explained the basics of LC-MS/MS technology and showcased its application through a real-world contaminant detection case study.
For lab managers, this session offers a baseline module for staff training, ensuring all analysts share the same foundation in food testing principles and LC-MS/MS fundamentals.
What you will learn:
- Get an overview of key food industry processes like milling and weighing.
- Understand why food testing is critical, including trends and regulations.
- Learn how LC-MS/MS works and why it’s ideal for detecting food contaminants.
- Explore a real-world case study of contaminant detection in food.
Applications of LC-MS/MS in food testing
Speaker: Carlos Bueno, Senior Application Support Specialist, SCIEX
This session builds on the previous introduction by exploring how LC-MS/MS is applied to detect specific food contaminants. It covers key analytes, sample preparation workflows, and practical insights for food safety testing. Linking core theory to day-to-day workflows, this module reinforces analyte-specific workflows and reduces variability in routine testing.
What you will learn:
- Key contaminants detected using LC-MS/MS: pesticides, mycotoxins, veterinary drugs, and allergens.
- Sample preparation workflow using Phenomenex consumables, designed to deliver robust cleanup, low background interference, and reproducible results across challenging food matrices.
- Key benefits of LC‑MS/MS for food testing, including sensitivity and selectivity in complex matrices.
- Getting started with LC-MS/MS in your lab
Getting started with LC-MS/MS in your lab
Speaker: Jianru Stahl-Zeng, Senior Technical Manager, SCIEX
This session helps labs understand the right LC-MS/MS system for their applications, develop effective methods, and access support resources. It includes practical guidance and an introduction to the SCIEX portfolio.
What you will learn:
- How to select the right LC-MS/MS system for your lab.
- Tips for method development and avoiding common pitfalls.
- Where to find support and training to get started confidently.
Submit your question
No question is too small. No jargon required. Just insight, clarity, and expertise.
Holly Lee
Staff Scientist, Food, SCIEX
Holly completed her PhD with Prof. Scott Mabury at the University of Toronto, studying the biological and environmental processes involved in the fate of PFAS upon consumer disposal. Upon graduation, Holly worked for the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks as a senior analytical technologist before moving to SCIEX, where she spent the last 8 years working in mass spectrometry research and development, then transitioning to global technical marketing in food LC-MS/MS applications.
Carlos Bueno
Senior Application Support Specialist, SCIEX
Carlos finished his Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry in 2001. Before starting work as an applications specialist, he worked for 4 years in Madrid's doping control laboratory. Since 2023, Carlos has been with SCIEX as a Senior Application Support Specialist for EMEA. With more than 20 years of experience in Chromatography and Mass spectrometry, mostly focused on the development of applications in food and environmental markets.
Jianru Stahl-Zeng
Senior Technical Manager, SCIEX
Jianru is Senior Technical Marketing Manager. She has been part of SCIEX since 2001. She initially was part of the application support team and covered not only proteomics, but also small molecules applications. Jianru moved to technical marketing and focused on food and environmental applications. Since 2018 she has been managing the EMEA technical marketing team and projects. Jianru is also the Global Technical Leader for food and environmental applications.
Craig Butt
Senior Manager, Food and Environmental
Craig M. Butt is Senior Manager of the Applied Markets group in the Global Technical Marketing division of SCIEX with over 20 years of mass spectrometry experience. Previously at SCIEX he was an applications scientist where he developed methods for targeted and non-targeted methods in the cannabis, environmental, food and beverage group. He obtained his Ph.D. in environmental chemistry at the University of Toronto, his thesis research investigated the fate of poly- and perfluorinated organic compounds (PFAS) in biological systems. He was a NSERC post-doctoral research fellow in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, later becoming a research scientist in the department.