D-lactic acid and production
Analyzing the D-lactic acid in tomato is a specific need of the companies that sell tomato pulp or that use ita as an ingredient for other food products. The method that is generally used for the analysis forsee a long and complicated sample treatment that has to be done in a chemical laboratory. Here the use of the spectrophotometer, particularly turbidity sensitive, imply an extremely elaborate sample treatment.
However the possibility to carry out many analyses directly in the production plant and to have the results immediately is very interesting for these companies. Therefore performing D – lactic acid analysis directly at line production without skilled staff, specialized in chemical analyses allows to:
- save time
- make decisions rapidly during the working process of products and first matter
At the request of a large food company the CDR R&D laboratory tried to apply the CDR FoodLab® method to this parameter as well. Indeed the CDR FoodLab® analysis system already allows to analyse in an easy and rapid way the L-lactic acid in tomato, fulfilling the need to analyse this parameter directly at line production.
The analysis
The CDR R&D laboratory started to work on some company’s samples: tomato, tomato paste (double and triple concentrated) and tomato sauce.
After a first analytical phase a reagent has been created, the “DL” reagent, able to determine through enzymatic reaction both of the enantiomers of lactic acid. Afterwards a correlation curve perfectly in line with the reference standards has tuned up.
...
The test with the CDR FoodLab® system allows to obtain the L-lactic acid and D-lactic acid values as the sum of the two values and as distinguished values of both L-lactic and D-lactic acids.
The new analysys:
- requires the use of micro quantities of tomato
- requires a simple sample filtration, even if the turbidity is high (specific syringe micro-filter)
- does not require sample diluition, letting you save time considerably
- does not require specialised facilities or staff (laboratories or chemists)
That implies, compared with the reference analysis method, the advantage of simpler and more rapid analysis performance, without wasting the first matter.
Reference method compliance
The new lactic acid (D+L) analysis is reference method compliant, but it differentiates for its simplicity and rapidity: the enzymatic method that is generally performed in a chemical laboratory requires indeed the use of a spectrophotometer very sensitive to the turbidity of the samples. It is why the sample treatment is long and complex and requires the use of big quantitues of tomato pulp.
With the CDR FoodLab® analysis system all of that can be avoided without losing accuracy and reliability of the results. CDR FoodLab® system can be set-up in an existing area with some bench straight away in only 5 minutes. It can perform 14 tests analysis session in about 15 minutes.