Hannover 2010 – scientific programme

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 17: Biomolecules

MO 17.6: Talk

Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 17:45–18:00, F 142

Direct Determination of Milk Fat Content Using Raman Spectroscopy — •Rasha Hassanein, Pinkie Eravuchira, Patrice Donfack, Bernd von der Kammer, and Arnulf Materny — Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany

The composition of milk is an important factor in dairy industry. Specifically, fat protein and carbohydrate are of interest, since these components have to be labeled on milk and milk products; they are used as an indicator for milk quality. Among all mentioned components milk fat content plays a significant role for consumers and dairy industry such as butter producer. Many different approaches have been considered as official methods for the determination of the fat content. These traditional methods are time consuming or need a special treatment of the milk with chemicals. A fast online analysis technique would be on the demand of the industry. Raman spectroscopy has already been successfully applied to food analysis. Due to the fingerprint characteristics of the Raman spectra, they are useful for the analysis of different components. In our presentation, we introduce Raman spectroscopy in combination with chemometric analysis as a rapid, straightforward and nondestructive tool for the quantification of fat content in liquid homogenized milk. Additionally, we show that using Raman spectroscopy is capable of determining the unsaturation level of milk fat. The results are in each case compared to the results of standard techniques.