Food Quality Applications

The quality and the quality control along the supply chain of food are becoming increasingly important factors that can have a significant influence on the purchasing decision of consumeners (see organicly grown food, etc). Spectrolytic’s product portfolio enables cost effective, in-line quality control along the entire food chain from the raw materials to the finished products

Please read the details of some of our most recent applications and do get in touch to discuss your specific requirements.

FOOD OIL

Description

Unfortunately, a major problem globally and more specifically in the EU involves downgrading or adulteration of Extra Virgin Olive Oils. Typically Extra Virgin Olive Oil can be mixed with lower grade oils such as blended olive oils and vegetable, plant or nut based oils.

The main reason behind this is the manufacturers attempting to drive up their profit margin.

Using an IR spectroscopy based approach to determine the adulteration of Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a rapid and accurate analytical process that can be used as an end-of-line or acceptance criteria for quality control.

Furthermore the IR spectroscopy measurement can differentiate between a variety of food oils based on Principal Component Analysis of the IR spectra.

RAPESEED OIL

Description

A common problem in the seed / grain industry is that a decisions about the quality of the product has to be made in a very short period of time . A typical example is that a lorry full of seed is delivered for further processing during harvest time and the quality (price) of the seeds needs to be established.

Rapeseed is  a good example for that as the quality of the rapeseed oil extracted from the seeds determines the application where the oil can be used. The quality of rapeseeds are determined by the saturated fatty acid concentration in the oil that has been extracted from the seeds as shown in the table. Using an infrared spectroscopy based approach to determine the saturated fatty acid concentrations of rapeseed oil is a fast and accurate analytical process that can be used at site to determine the quality of the rape seeds.