LC-MS combines high separation ability of liquid chromatography with
strong mass spectrometric structure identification. The advantages of LC-MS include
high sensitivity and selectivity, minimal sample throughput, fast analysis speed and
extensive structural information. It has been widely used in many fields, such as natural
product analysis, pharmaceutical and food analysis, and environmental analysis.
In recent years, a great deal of researches have been conducted on the qualitative and
quantitative aspects of food proteins and peptides. A variety of qualitative analyses of
food proteins and peptides have been performed by LC-MS, such as accurate analysis
of relative molecular weight, primary structural sequence, disulfide bond position,
post-translational modifications (PTMs), etc. The quantitative analysis of proteins and
peptides by LC-MS has been mainly achieved by two methods, i.e., label-free methods
(peak intensities approach and spectral counting approach) and labeled methods
(chemical labeling, metabolic labeling and enzymatic labeling methods). This chapter
focuses on the application of qualitative and quantitative analysis of proteins and
peptides in food sources.
Keywords: Food proteins and peptides, Mass spectrometry, Qualitative analysis,
Quantitative analysis.
