Spotlight Food & Beverage Analysis
Automated Analysis for Asparagine Content in Food
Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc introduced an easy and rapid automated method to analyse asparagine, a major amino acid commonly found in food. Asparagine reacts with reducing sugars like glucose at temperatures above 160°C to produce acrylamide, a suspected carcinogen. Formation of acrylamide is a concern in the processing of fried, baked or roasted processed foods such as potato chips or french fries, baked cereals and roasted coffee beans.
PITTCON NEWS
The simple and effective automated photometric method employs the Thermo Scientific Arena analyser for the determination of asparagine levels in both raw and processed foods. In addition to an easy asparagine test, Arena system applications are available for measuring reducing sugars that are an integral part of acrylamide formation.
All Arena products – the Arena 20, 20XT, 30 and 60 – utilise disposable multicell cuvette technology to provide true discrete analysis, virtually eliminating carryover.
To reduce determination time, several analytes can be measured simultaneously from a single sample, and several blanking possibilities are available to eliminate interfering substances like the sample matrix effects. Arena analysers are designed for true walk-away analysis and minimum reagent consumption, thus lowering operating costs and minimising waste.
The Arena application menu covers a wide selection of optimized solutions for industrial purposes, including wine, juice, milk, honey, special food, fertilizers and detergent tests. Bar-coded Arena system reagents are available for fructose, glucose, sucrose, ethanol, lactic and malic acid determinations.
These ready-to-use system kits eliminate time-consuming reagent preparation, allowing full automation and cost savings.
Circle no. 346 Clean, Dry Air For Food & Beverage Laboratories
To meet the growing demand for laboratory-quality clean, dry compressed air in the food and beverage industry, the Gast Group manufactures the Jun-Air range of oil- less air compressors that offer an unrivalled combination of low noise levels, reliability, long life and low maintenance. With decibel ratings as low as 47-55 dB(A) when housed in an attractive soundproof cabinet, models in the oil-less range have the lowest noise levels available, making them ideal for providing an independent air supply for laboratory installations, even in or near individual workstations.
To ensure the highest air quality throughout the lifetime of the oil-less compressor range, receivers are internally powder-coated to avoid corrosion. Adsorption dryers remove moisture to ensure 100% dry, clean oil free compressed air, with pressure dewpoints of -40 and -70oC. The dryer is located upstream of the receiver so the receiver only stores dry air. Units feature a unique cooling system and wear-resisting piston rings, and are designed for 100% continuous operation up to 10 bar maximum pressure. Higher pressure units are also available.
Fruit is Even Better Than Previously Thought Circle no. 345
An international team of scientists has found that the polyphenol content of fruits has been underestimated. Polyphenol content in fruits usually refers to extractable polyphenols, but a Spanish scientist working at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich analysed apple, peach and nectarine. She found that nonextractable polyphenol content is up to five times higher than extractable compounds. This work has been published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
"These polyphenols need to be treated with acid to extract them from the cell walls of fruit in the lab," said Sara Arranz from the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) in Madrid. "If non-extractable polyphenols are not considered, the levels of beneficial polyphenols such as proanthocyanidins, ellagic acid and catechin are substantially underestimated,“ Dr Paul Kroon from IFR, explained: "In the human body these compounds will be fermented by bacteria in the colon, creating metabolites that may be beneficial, for example with antioxidant activity."
The Spanish research group, led by Professor Fulgencio Saura-Calixto, has been working to show that nonextractable polyphenols, which mostly escape analysis and are not usually considered in nutritional studies, are a major part of bioactive compounds in the diet. "These polyphenols are major constituents of the human diet with important health properties. To consider them in nutritional and epidemiological research may be useful for a better understanding of the effects of plant foods in health," said Professor Saura-Calixto.
The study was funded by a scholarship to Dr Arranz from the Spanish Ministry of Science and through IFR's core strategic grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Circle no. 347
New Product Food Line
ANALYTICA NEWS
For the first time Omnilab-Laborzentrum GmbH & Co KG presents their new product line FoodALYT at Analytica. The product range consits of units for nitrogen determination according to Kjeldahl, fat extraction according to Soxhlet resp.
Twisselmann and also steam distillation units are included. The steam distillation units are also used for sample preparation.
For Omnilab the Analytica is a good platform to contact new international partners and customers and to spark further interest in FoodALYT.
“Safety and reliability are most important to us. These properties are represented by our new product line FoodALYT,” said Joachim Jürgens, CEO of Omnilab. Omnilab is a highly specialised supplier of food anayses systems for decades and has transferred this knowledge into these products.
Circle no. 348 Food Safety Application Notebook
The Dionex Food Safety Application Notebook, a 170-page plus compilation of food safety applications in an easy-to-use PDF, is available on the Dionex website. Concerns about food safety have risen to the forefront with the frequent exposés of dangerous and, sometimes, deadly contamination in the global food supply chain in the last few years. Products are grown and processed in widely differing environments under a variety of regulatory frameworks, travel thousands of miles, are kept in various storage conditions, experience temperature fluctuations that may affect shelf life, and are handled by many different people. At any point in this process, products can be contaminated or may become unfit for consumption.
Dionex has been working with industry and regulatory agencies to develop numerous extraction, sample preparation, IC, and HPLC solutions for the determination of a broad range of food contaminants so that many of these food contaminants can be isolated and identified reliably and quickly before they reach the table. The Dionex Food Safety Application Notebook lists and describes food safety applications grouped by contaminant type: agricultural, chemical, environmental, food additive, and food processing. Applications include pesticides through acrylamide in foodstuff. The notebook combines applications notes on extraction and analysis by HPLC or IC and includes a Column Selection Guide.
Circle no. 349 Circle no. 350
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