High resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a very powerful technique for physico-chemical investigations and for structural determination in particular. NMR is a very powerful quantitative method through the direct proportionality between signal intensity and the number of nuclei in resonance. To date, even when including low resolution NMR, only very few NMR methods have been adopted as official control methods. However, for about a decade, an increasing number of papers have been published on the application of NMR for food studies. Despite this trend, NMR is not yet a common analytical tool used by food control analysts. The reason for this is generally attributed to the cost of purchasing and maintaining NMR equipment. It is also often thought that NMR sensitivity and precision for quantitative determination is not comparable to that attained by other analytical techniques, such as chromatography and mass spectrometry. In the current paper, we do not intend to discuss theabove arguments in detail but we would like to express some considerations about the present position and possible further extensions of NMR analysis in the control of food and agricultural products in support of European Policies. In particular, we will discuss some possible applications of NMR analysis in the monitoring of certain aspects of European Regulations regarding traceability, labelling and indication of origin of agricultural and food products.
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