The Future Outlook of Deploying XRF Analyzers in Testing Complex Food Matrices

In a previous interview clip (1), we asked Patrick Parsons of the New York State Department of Health about what his recent study’s (2) validation results mean for using the tested X-ray fluorescence (XRF) instruments as frontline screening tools for food safety monitoring.

In the video segment below, we conclude our discussion of XRF instruments by asking Parsons about the challenges in deploying XRF analyzers in testing complex food matrices, and he also provides his thoughts on the top trends that spectroscopists should be paying attention to in 2026.

Spectroscopy: The study includes analyses of real-world samples such as medicinal herbs and spices. What challenges or opportunities do you foresee for deploying XRF analyzers in routine testing of diverse and complex food matrices?

Patrick Parsons: The challenges are, of course, about detection limits. X-ray fluorescence, historically, and even with the new technology, the detection limits are limited. They're not going to be as good as ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma–mass spectroscopy) or furnace atomic absorption, but those instruments are lab-based instruments. I can't get them into the back of my car, and so XRF technology has its place in the toolbox, particularly for rapid screening. It takes quite a long time to prepare a sample for analysis by ICP-MS. You got to digest it, and it takes a long time and is quite complex. With XRF, you can get results in anywhere from three and a half minutes to 10 minutes per sample, so it's very fast. I see that tool as being very important for rapid screening.

I think it also plays an important role in ruling things out. So take, for example, an unknown sample in the lab. You don't know what's in it. You prep it up and run it on an ICP-MS instrument, and it's got weight percent lead, and now you've contaminated your mass spectrometer. It's going to take you a month to clean that out.

So, I see the XRF as being a very important screening tool to avoid contaminating the very sensitive instrumentation with samples that are weight percent lead or weight percent mercury. But beyond that, I think that challenges remain. There's a challenge with dealing with food matrices per se, regardless of whether it's XRF or ICP-MS, because the matrices are so different. If you go from rice to vegetable oil, those matrices are just so different. The validation is completely different, and that complicates the analytical job. I think it would be great if we had more secondary reference materials in different matrices to give us confidence in the data that are reported in these different matrices, but I know that the FDA struggles with this. That's just the nature of the beast. There's just so many different food matrices that we have to deal with.

This video clip is the final part of our conversation with Parsons as part of our coverage of the Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry. To stay up to date on our coverage of the Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry, click here.

References

1. Wetzel, W. The Application of XRF Instrumentation in Food Safety Monitoring. Spectroscopy. Available at: [Link Not Yet Available] (accessed 2026-01-09).
2. Johnson-Restrepo, B.; Blain, E.; Judd, C.; et al. New Developments in Monochromatic Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence Instrumentation for Monitoring Toxic Elements in Food Matrices: Advantages and Limitations. Rad. Phys. Chem. 2025, 234, 112749. DOI: 10.1016/j.radphyschem.2025.112749