FT-NIR has the potential to substitute an array of wet chemical and chromatography methods in all areas of the food and beverage industry for proximate anaysis.
The vast number of types and preparations of condiments offer a sensational experience of taste and flavors but is very demanding in terms of quality control. FT-NIR analysis is a key tool to ensure easily the quality of the various raw materials and finished products, e.g.
A tight quality control along the production steps is critical for valuable ingredients like cocoa as well as the final chocolate products. FT-NIR provides accurate analysis results of multiple components within seconds for fast decisions to maintain highest quality for chocolate as wel as for bakery products. In addition ingredients such as honey, nuts, caramel and marzipan can be analyzed with the same instrument to secure the requested quality and adjust recipes if required.
Commonly analyzed parameters include Brix, Pol, color (ICUMSA), ash, fat, moisture, protein, lactose, sucrose, reducing sugars and Theobromine.
Producing sugar from sugar cane or beet is a complex process requiring a tight quality control along the production chain to ensure optimized yield and quality. FT-NIR offers a fast and effective tool for controlling the critical QC parameters of raw materials, products and by-products in all production steps.
Near infrared spectroscopy provides accurate analysis results of multiple components like Brix, Pol, dry matter, moisture and ash within seconds. It is a non-destructive method without any sample preparation and does not require the use of any solvents or reagents. Operators can easily perform the real time measurements resulting in huge time and cost savings. FT-NIR can be implemented in the lab of a sugar mill, at-line in the production area or even on-line in order to control products and by-products.
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Many of the raw materials used for producing beverages can be analyzed by NIR. From solid samples like wheat, barley, malt, hops and yeasts to liquids like concentrates.
Most intermediates and products are liquids and analyzed in transmission through a maintenance free quartz flow cell with 1mm (1,000μm) path length that does not show cuvette wear over time. Adding the Liquids Sampling Module (LSM) to the MPA II or TANGO-T spectrometer automates the process of analyzing and cleaning for highest reproducibility and accuracy.
Although FT-NIR is not suitable for the analysis of microorganisms, Bruker offers for microbiology laboratories the dedicated MALDI Biotyper® and IR Biotyper®, both based on a "one system-one workflow" concept.
The very new IR Biotyper®, based on FT-IR technology, has been designed for easy and fast strain typing.
The MALDI Biotyper® confirms and identifies microorganisms from selective and non-selective agar plates within minutes. Using MALDI-TOF (Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization/Time of Flight) Mass Spectrometry, the characteristic proteomic fingerprint of an isolate is compared to thousands of reference spectra to provide fast and reliable confirmation and identification.
Food safety and food quality assurance are becoming increasingly important in the face of industrialized agriculture and food production.
Bruker offers apart from FT-NIR solutions, also applications of FTIR in Food Fraud and Adulteration. Here especially macroscopic ATR solutions with the ALPHA II and microscopic chemical imaging techniques using the LUMOS II are of interest.
