PFAS Analysis in Practice: A RAFA 2024 Interview with Stefan van Leuwen
Stefan van Leuwen is a distinguished senior scientist at Wageningen Food Safety Research, renowned for his expertise in analytical and environmental chemistry. He earned his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2009. Driven by a passion for advancing food safety, Van Leuwen has developed cutting-edge chromatography-mass spectrometry techniques to detect trace levels of environmental pollutants, including PFAS, chlorinated, and brominated substances. He is also a pioneer in identifying unknown contaminants, such as novel PFAS compounds, through innovative analytical toolkits.
Stefan van Leuwen is a distinguished senior scientist at Wageningen Food Safety Research. Photo Credit: © Stefan van Leuwen
Currently, Van Leuwen’s research addresses emerging challenges in circular food production, focusing on the risks posed by pollutants when waste and by-products are repurposed in food systems. As a board member of the Environmental Chemistry & Toxicology section of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV) and co-chair of the EURL Core Working Group on PFAS Methods since 2021, he plays a pivotal role in shaping the field of food safety. His areas of expertise include mass spectrometry, chromatography, PFAS, persistent organic pollutants, and process-induced contaminants.
Van Leuwen sat down with LCGC International to answer the following questions at RAFA 2024:
- PFAS are such a broad group of compounds. Can you tell what compounds are relevant for analytical laboratories to analyze?
- What would you recommend for laboratories that are focussed on food compliance testing? Would a regular C18 stationary phase be suitable??
- If you work in a more explorative type of laboratory, looking at a broader range of PFAS, would you then be using different stationary phases?
- In your talk, you combined three analytical approaches: UHPLC–MS/MS, UHPLC–HRMS and combustion ion chromatography. What can we learn from these techniques?
- Your have focused on liquid chromatography so far. Are PFAS samples ever analyzed by GC?
- What is the future direction of PFAS research?
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