Miniature mass spectrometry in drug and food analysis: Bridging laboratory and field applications

Rapid globalization and evolving consumption patterns challenge drug and food safety, creating an urgent need for robust and on-site analytical systems. Portable technologies, especially miniature mass spectrometry (mini MS), meet this demand by providing real-time, in-field detection. The strength of mini MS lies in its portability, rapid analysis, and versatile ionization techniques, which facilitate all analytical steps from sampling to data processing on-site. This review details recent advancements in MS miniaturization, including fundamental instrument components and their optimizations for the challenges faced in practical applications. It also summarizes expanding applications in pharmaceutical and food safety, encompassing therapeutic drug monitoring, illicit drug screening, quality control of herbal medicines and safety assessments across the food supply chain. By offering insights into future developments, this review aims to be a key technical reference to advance innovation in precision analysis.

This review presents a comprehensive examination of the develop mental progress in mini MS technology, highlighting how the innovative integration of portability, rapid detection capabilities, and diverse ionization methods has demonstrated remarkable application value in pharmaceutical and food analysis. The core strength of mini MS lies in its exceptional on-site screening capability, enabling the rapid generation of analytically significant data to support decision making. Its quantitative and qualitative performance metrics, along with the corresponding validation criteria, represent key considerations inherent to its portable physical design. Therefore, its development should be guided by the strategy for specific scenarios, aimed at achieving an optimal balance between analytical performance, portability, and practical value.