Food Standards and Quality Control

Food Standard and Quality Control

Lesson 08 : Objective Methods - Chemical Methods

Analytical instruments for chemical analysis

The mass spectrophotometer: It is an analytical technique that measures the mass-to-charge ratio of charged particles. It is used for determining masses of particles, for determining the elemental composition of a sample or molecule, and for elucidating the chemical structures of molecules, such as peptides and other chemical compounds. The MS principle consists of ionizing chemical compounds to generate charged molecules or molecule fragments and measurement of their mass-to-charge ratios

Infra-red spectrophotometer: Based on infra-red spectra particular groups can be identified in an organic compound, or even the whole compound.

UV-visible absorption spectrophotometer: Explains the origin of UV-visible absorption spectra, how they are measured, and how they can be used in the analysis of organic compounds.

High Performance Liquid Chromatography: It is used to quantify the compounds present in a food. HPLC utilizes different types of stationary phase a pump that moves the mobile phase(s) and analyte through the column, and a detector that provides a characteristic retention time for the analyte. The detector may also provide other characteristic information . Analyte retention time varies depending on the strength of its interactions with the stationary phase, the ratio/composition of solvent(s) used, and the flow rate of the mobile phase.