Vanillin is a flavor widely used in the food industry. This paper discusses the application of vanillin in the food industry, worldwide limits for the use of vanillin, the characteristics of the production technology and the possible risks brought by vanillin for foods, and it also summarizes the methods for vanillin detection in dairy products, infant formulas and formulas for special medical purposes intended for infants including gas chromatography (GC), liquid chromatography (LC), gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS), liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and spectroscopy with special attention to their advantages and limitations. This review is expected to provide a basis for the detection and further research of vanillin in infant formulas for special medical purpose.

Ion chromatography was used to determine the inositol content in formula foods for special medical purposes. The sample was acidified by hydrochloric acid to precipitate proteins, and inositol was dissolved in the supernatant and then detected with an amperometric detector. The results showed that the peak area was linearly related to the concentration of inositol in the range of 0.025 to 40.000 mg/L with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.999 9. The detection limit and quantitation limit were 0.125 and 0.5 mg/100 g, respectively. The average recovery of inositol was 83.1%–102.9% at different spiked levels. The method was proved to be simple, sensitive reproducible and suitable for the determination of inositol in formula foods for special medical purposes.

In this study, the applicability of hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HG-AFS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), methods I and III specified in the national standard GB 5009.93—2017, respectively to detect selenium in infant formula for special medical purposes was researched. Seven laboratories separately determined the selenium content in six samples of 3 types of infant formula for special medical purposes and infant formula quality control samples, and measured the recoveries. The results showed both methods were suitable for the determination of selenium in infant formula, while the applicability for various types of infant formula foods for special medical purposes needs to be further studied.

In order to evaluate the application value of ready-to-use Salmonella quality control samples in matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS) identification of Salmonella in milk-containing formula foods for special medical purposes, this experiment evaluated the uniformity and stability of the quality control samples. After being stored at 20 ℃ for 0, 14 and 28 days, these samples were identified by mass spectrometry and the VITEK automatic microbial analysis system. The results showed that the quality control samples had good stability and uniformity, and their mass spectra were similar to each other. The VITEK system confirmed their identity as Salmonella. In conclusion, the ready-to-use Salmonella quality control strains can be used for the detection of Salmonella in milk-containing formula foods for special medical purposes.

A rapid detection method for Salmonella in fermented milk was developed by helicase-dependent isothermal DNA amplification (HDA). In this method, the invA gene sequence of Salmonella was used as the target gene to design specific primers, and the concentrations of UvrD helicase and T4 gp32 in the reaction system were optimized to establish the optimal reaction system. The HDA method was used to directly detect Salmonella in fermented milk, and the amplification products were detected by electrophoresis to verify the specificity of this method. The results showed that the proposed method exhibited high specificity for Salmonella in fermented milk. The optimized reaction system contained 0.10 μg of UvrD helicase and 5.0 μg of T4 gp32 per 50 μL of sample. The amplification product was consistent with the designed sequence length (304 bp). The detection limit was 2.6 × 102 CFU/g. The method can meet the requirements for the rapid detection of Salmonella in fermented milk, and thanks to its high sensitivity and easy operation, it can be used as a basic method for rapid detection of Salmonella in fermented milk.

As a nutritional supplement for people with special needs, the food for special medical purposes (FSMP) has occupied an important position in the global market. As the main source of added nutritional components in FSMP, nutritional fortifiers are of great significance to improve its quality. This paper focuses on the comparative analysis of the standards and regulations of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), the EU and China on nutrients and nutritional fortifiers in FSMP with respect to limits, ingredients, sources, and so forth, in order to provide useful information for improving the standards for the use of nutritional fortifiers in FSMP in China.