36 FOOD & DRINK TECHNOLOGY
The future of food analysis - assessing instrumentation
It is important to use the correct analytical tools and methodologies for food analysis in order to get meaningful answers to specific questions. Steve Garrett and Julian South report.
Il est primordial d’utiliser les bons outils et méthodologies d’analyse pour analyser les aliments afin d’obtenir des réponses significatives à des questions spécifiques. Selon Steve Garrett et Julian South.
Um bei der Lebensmittelanalyse aussagekräftige Antworten auf spezifische Fragen zu erhalten, müssen die richtigen Analyseinstrumente und -verfahren eingesetzt werden. Steve Garrett und Julian South berichten.
www.scientistlive.com F
ood analysis is required for a wide variety of reasons - from testing suitability for
purpose, through checking shelf-life or authenticity, to assuring legal compliance.
Instrumentation has improved considerably in the past 10 years with advances in microelectronics and engineering offering analysts in-, on-, or at-line capability for measuring food quality. Tere are instruments which could effectively replace laboratory testing and offer real-time control of product quality and manufacturing control.
However, the take up of new rapid methods of instrumentation within the food industry has been limited due to the resources required to effectively evaluate the best
options. Faced with the challenge of prioritising tasks, it is often easier for manufacturers to continue with less efficient off-line measurements than to test and validate new on-line systems.
Yet many of the new systems, although expensive to set up, offer rapid recovery of initial capital. In many companies, there has therefore been a sporadic installation of on- line measuring systems, which are often undertaken as a one-off project championed by an enthusiastic technical manager, rather than as part of an ongoing company strategy.
Campden BRI has been monitoring and assessing rapid methods through project ROBOT - a Campden BRI member-funded research project looking at the future for analysis
in food factories. Te project’s objectives include:
n Reviewing cutting-edge rapid analytical tools.
n Evaluating the food and drink industry’s needs and current applications for rapid analytical instrumentation.
n Assessing selected rapid analytical tools at Campden BRI’s laboratories and reporting back important technology-driven opportunities to Campden BRI member companies.
Te following examples illustrate the systems explored.
In one study, an analyser, which uses transmittance measurement and scans across the whole near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) spectrum,
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