Aug 17, 2006

Brazilians wax lyrical on food testing

Posted in Chemistry, spectroscopy at 12:00 am by David Bradley -- Click to comment

Brazilian researchers have developed a method to analyse the metal ion content of food products by combining X-ray spectroscopy (XRS) with a partial least-squares (PLS) data treatment. Their approach promises to be faster, more widely applicable to a range of food and agricultural products, and less expensive than other methods.

Food quality control is critical to consumer safety and satisfaction. Knowing levels of inorganic analytes, such as the toxic elements arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and lead, is important, as is information on macro-nutrients like calcium, potassium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, and sulfur and micronutrients (copper, iron, manganese, and zinc).

Read the complete story in the latest science news round-up from David Bradley in Spectroscopynow.com

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