For the analysis of highly hydrophilic and polar compounds, Hydrophilic 
Interaction Chromatography (HILIC) has been established as a valuable 
complementary approach to reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC). Moreover, 
the use of mobile phases with a high percentage of organic solvent in HILIC 
separation is beneficial for mass spectrometric (MS) detection, because of 
enhanced ionization which results in an increased sensitivity. In this review, 
various applications of HILIC are described for a number of environmental and 
food contaminants together with detailed methodological descriptions and the 
advantages or drawbacks of HILIC compared to other LC methods are critically 
discussed. In the first part of the review, an overview is given of the work 
that has been carried out with HILIC for the analysis of pharmaceuticals and 
pesticides in environmental samples. HILIC has shown its applicability for polar 
pharmaceuticals, such as antibiotics, estrogens and their metabolites, drugs of 
abuse, cytostatics, metformin and contrast agents. In the pesticide group, HILIC 
chromatography was helpful for polar phenylurea and organophosphorus pesticides. 
The second part of the review focuses on the analysis of antibiotic residues in 
food and feed with HILIC, while in the pesticide group, HILIC experiments have 
been reported for dithiocarbamates and quaternary ammonium compounds. The last 
chapter gives an overview of the analysis by HILIC of miscellaneous analytes in 
aquatic and food/feed samples.