How can NMR spectroscopy be used to analyze food?
NMR spectroscopy is a powerful technique that can reveal the molecular structure and composition of food samples. It can be used to measure the quality, safety, authenticity, and functionality of food products and ingredients. In this article, you will learn how NMR spectroscopy works, what types of food analysis it can perform, and what are some of the advantages and challenges of using it in the food industry.
NMR stands for nuclear magnetic resonance, which is a phenomenon that occurs when certain nuclei, such as hydrogen, carbon, or nitrogen, are exposed to a strong magnetic field and radiofrequency pulses. These nuclei absorb and emit energy at specific frequencies, depending on their chemical environment and interactions with other nuclei. By detecting and analyzing these frequencies, NMR spectroscopy can provide information about the structure, dynamics, and interactions of molecules in a sample.
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Jacob Wassey
Orthopedic Reconstruction, Spine & Trauma Sales
NMR spectroscopy is a powerful technique that can reveal the molecular structure and composition of food samples. Using instruments such as the CEM Oracle fat analyzer an NMR can determine characteristics of a sample such as %fat and %moisture content.
NMR spectroscopy can be leveraged in the analysis of food for various purposes, such as quantifying components, assessing quality, detecting safety hazards, verifying authenticity, and studying functionality. It can quantify major and minor components such as water, fat, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and metabolites. Additionally, it can assess the freshness, ripeness, maturity, shelf life, and sensory attributes of food. Furthermore, it can detect and measure the presence of harmful substances in food such as toxins, allergens, pathogens, pesticides, and heavy metals. Moreover, it can verify the origin, identity and purity of food products and ingredients. Lastly, it can study the physical and chemical properties of food that affect its functionality.
NMR spectroscopy has several advantages over other methods for food analysis, such as being non-destructive and comprehensive. It can provide a detailed picture of the molecular composition and structure of food in a matter of minutes or seconds. Additionally, NMR spectroscopy produces consistent and reliable results across different instruments and laboratories with minimal variation and error. It is also versatile, allowing for the analysis of a wide range of food samples from liquids to solids, and from simple to complex mixtures.
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William Cheung
Assistant Professor (Metabolomics/Lipidomics) at Northumbria University
Yes, it would be a efficient way to screen and monitior liquid base food products, its quality and batch to batch variation, for bulk metaboite profiling.
NMR spectroscopy is a valuable tool for food analysis, but there are some challenges and limitations associated with it. Cost is a major factor, as it requires expensive and sophisticated equipment and maintenance, as well as trained and skilled personnel to operate and interpret the data. Additionally, NMR spectroscopy has a relatively low sensitivity compared to other analytical methods, meaning it may not detect very low concentrations or minor components of food. Moreover, the data generated by NMR spectroscopy can be large and complex, requiring advanced software and algorithms to process and analyze. Finally, NMR spectroscopy is not yet widely accepted or standardized as an official method for food analysis by regulatory authorities and organizations, which may limit its application and recognition in the food industry.
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Susan Butch
Senior Director of Marketing - American Laboratory Trading
Most NMR instruments also rely on cryosolvents which are expensive and require special handling and facilities for proper safety. Benchtop NMR systems help to overcome this challenge as well as the skilled operator hurdle and some of the sample preparation steps that may be required for traditional mid- to high-field NMR measurements.
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Alex Lulack
COO | Global Operations and Product Development | Retail and D2C | Scale up | Startup | Mergers and Acquisitions | CPG | Food and Beverage | Biotech
There are many drawbacks to using or relying on NMR for food analysis. 1. Expenses. You will need a dedicated room, or large section of a room, which you will have to keep dust and many other hazards away from. You will need to purchase the machine, and depending on exactly what you need, expect to spend 500k. Then a 100k salary for the tech to run it. Throw in consumables and you're looking at a large buy in cost. 2. Since many companies do not have an NMR, methods using NMR are fairly rare in food, and often times you may be asked for an additional method on a more common machine for analysis.
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Mohsen Kompany Zareh
PhD in Analytical Chemistry, Research associate at Dalhousie University
Application of chemometrics and machine learning techniques is helpful for the proper analysis of complicated NMR data from food samples.