Journal of Food Safety and Quality

Objective To gain a more intuitive understanding of the academic context and evolutionary trends of the ion mobility spectrometry applied in the field of food science. Methods This study took the literature from the Web of Science core database over the past 15 years as the research object, and used bibliometric analysis methods to reveal the current status, hotspots and development trends of research in this field. Results Our study had shown that the number of publications on the application of ion mobility spectrometry in food science research is constantly increasing, which involves the interdisciplinary fields such as chemistry, nutrition, biochemistry, agriculture, spectroscopy, environment and pharmacy beyond food science and technology. The number of the China’s publication was far ahead, and its institutions had great international discourse power, but the personal academic influence of Chinese authors still needs to be improved. At present, the main hotspots included the studies on different food qualities and flavors, metabolomics, volatile (organic) compounds and enrichment, optimization of instrument parameters and conditions, statistical methods, sample identification and classification, and multiple instrument combination analysis based on the application of ion mobility spectrometry. The co-occurrence, clustering and emergence analysis of the keywords further reveal the evolution process and mutation situation of research hotspots. Conclusion This study can provide theoretical basis for experts and scholars in the fields of food science and analytical chemistry to grasp the international application status and future development trends of ion mobility spectrometry.

ion mobility spectrometry; food science; bibliometric analysis; research hotspot