Different Analysis Techniques to Determine the Nutritional Content of Food 

by Dr. Nellie Chourmouziadi Laleni, Tuesday, 12th November 2024

Nutrition has always been a crucial aspect of our daily lives. In response to the fast-paced nature of modern life, there has been a growing shift towards healthier lifestyles, consequently increasing people’s awareness on what they consume. We often check food labels to understand their nutritional content, focusing on fat, sugar, protein levels, and more. But have you ever wondered how these values are determined? From vitamins and minerals to sugars, a wide range of chemical analyses are used to identify these components, each requiring different methods depending on the compound of interest. Malvern Panalytical offers solutions to a few of these methods for characterization of the nutritional content of food. Let’s explore of them in more detail. 

Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC) 

Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC) can accurately separate molecules according to their size and combined with our unique multidetector system, offer in-depth characterization of molecules. The OMNISEC system uses four different detectors: refractometer, light scattering, viscometer and UV/Vis PDA providing information about the samples’ absolute molecular weight, molecular size, intrinsic viscosity, branching and other parameters. This technique is useful for characterization and identification of proteins1 and carbohydrates2 present in foods. 

X- Ray Fluorescence (XRF) 

XRF studies atomic fluorescence after irradiation of the sample with an x-ray source. Each element present will produce a characteristic x-ray signal and so XRF can be used to determine the chemical composition of samples. The technique can be used to indicate the presence of salt minerals and detect free elements such as iron and calcium3,4 or even contaminants like lead in wheat noodles5. 

Malvern Panalytical offers different XRF analyzers depending on the sample and the needs of the users.  

Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy 

Near Infra-Red (NIR) spectroscopy is a technique that studies light attenuation due to bond vibrations at the near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum (approximately 700 to 2500 nanometers). Study of light can rapidly assess materials with respect to their composition. 

By using NIR Spectroscopy, different components of foods can be determined such as moisture content which can be important as too much can promote bacterial growth reducing the shelf life, dilute the nutritional content and alter its processing or cooking outcomes. Additionally, it can determine the lipid or protein6 content in foods such as meat7 and dairy8. 

Further reading

  1. Protein mixture compositional insights: a case study of a semi-pure b-amylase extract
  2. Polysaccharides used as food ingredients
  3. Trace element determination of Cr, Fe, Cu and Zn in gelatin 
  4. Elemental determination of dog food samples using lithium borate fusion and XRF analysis
  5. Screening for lead contamination in wheat noodles 
  6. NIR and proteins 
  7. NIR and dairy 
  8. Meat Property Analysis Using LabSpec® 

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