Keeping an eye on your product

The requirements of quality control in the production and processing of food are constantly growing. The responsible laboratories must master not only new tasks and a constantly growing sample throughput, but are also required to supply faster results, since most plants operate with increasingly high throughput. The modern Fourier-Transform near infrared (FT-NIR) technology offers many possibilities for fast and easy quality control in the laboratory and at-line, as well as in-process control of many different products.

The potential of near infrared spectroscopy was discovered in the 1960s first for the rapid characterization of agricultural products like grain. Other areas in the food business took longer to pick up the benefits, but the development of easy to use instruments, new sampling accessories and sophisticated software packages gave NIR a rapid boost.

Today NIR is widely used in all areas of the food industry, including dairy, meat and edible oil manufacturing. The main applications are the identification and quantification of raw materials, in-process materials, and finished products throughout the entire production chain. Bruker Optics offers an FT-NIR system that can cover a wide range of applications in food analysis.  An array of customized accessories for dedicated sampling modules is available for any type of liquid, powdered, semi-solid or solid sample.

With a minimum of training, any person in production or in the lab is able to perform an analysis. A set of starter calibrations provided by Bruker Optics allows a quick and easy implementation of FT-NIR technology. The fast measurement and the simultaneous determination of multiple parameters like fat, moisture and protein allows for the analysis of many more samples within a given time, leading to a better understanding and control of raw materials, products and the production process and, consequently, a better quality, more consistent product at a lower cost.

For more information, please visit www.brukeroptics.com.