Food safety isn’t just a matter of regulations – it’s a matter of trust. South African consumers expect transparency from the brands they support, and leading retailers like Woolworths know this. As shoppers become increasingly mindful of health and sustainability, the demand for rigorous food testing has never been higher.

🖥️ Watch the Recent Advances in the Routine Analysis of Dioxins in Food and Environmental Samples webinar and explore how to implement triple quadrupole GC/MS for the routine analysis of dioxins in environmental and food samples according to EPA and SANTE guidelines.

When ‘safe’ isn’t simple: The complex nature of food testing

Food safety testing involves identifying and quantifying chemical residues such as pesticides, mycotoxins, additives, allergens, and heavy metals. In particular, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and environmental pollutants such as dioxins or plasticisers are increasingly under scrutiny.

The complexity of modern food products and their varied matrices – from fatty snacks to fibrous grains – presents analytical challenges that demand robust, high-sensitivity instruments. Traditional methods may struggle with accuracy, throughput, or regulatory compliance, especially when laboratories are expected to produce results quickly and cost-effectively.

🖥️ Watch the Analysis of Pesticides in Complex Food Matrices webinar and discover how to increase your lab’s productivity with simultaneous target quantitation and suspect screening on a single platform.

The growth of the African dairy market is driven by factors such as changing consumer preferences, increased demand, and local special circumstances. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) projects that the African dairy sector will continue to grow by 30% which is drawing attention from investors.

Milk: The essentials

Milk is a natural source of the fats, minerals, nutrients, micronutrients, and vitamins required for a balanced diet. It is also essential for the growth and development of babies and infants into early childhood. Either breast or infant formula milk is given to babies for at least the first six months of their lives, and between the ages of one and two years, whole milk and dairy products are recommended to ensure that babies receive essential vitamins they may not otherwise obtain from lower fat alternatives.

Preserving nutritional values, safety, and authenticity

Milk and its related products are tested for three main reasons within the food and beverage industry:

1. Nutrition — ensuring the required nutritional value of milk is present in its products.
2. Safety — confirming the absence of suspected harmful chemicals in milk.
3. Authenticity — determining if milk products are adulterated and therefore compromised in any way.

By testing these three factors, consumers are more protected from mislabelled, fraudulent, and potentially contaminated milk products that may have reached the marketplace unregulated.

The importance of testing nutritional values of milk and infant formulas

Testing the nutritional values of milk is important so that consumers can make informed decisions about their purchases. Above all, manufacturers of specified products — such as infant formulas for example — must adhere to uncompromising nutritional values determined by regional, national, or international regulatory bodies.

To support consumers making these decisions about their milk and/or infant formula purchases, it is crucial for manufacturers to label their products accurately. In doing so, food testing labs may carry out experiments using HPLC, LC/MS/MS, and GC systems to accurately measure milk content for sugars, fats, vitamins, and amino acids.

Measuring the levels of vitamins as well as beneficial (and some essential) elements such as sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, selenium, phosphorus, manganese, and zinc, provides insightful nutritional information. It’s also important to monitor for potentially toxic elements such as arsenic, cadmium, tin, mercury, and lead in animal-derived milk as contamination could originate from animal feed, fertiliser, soil, or processing equipment.

In one study, the Agilent 5800 VDV ICP-OES system used with an SPS 4 autosampler determined calcium, copper, iron, potassium, magnesium, manganese, sodium, phosphorous, and zinc in milk powder and infant formula samples according to the ISO 15151 method. Results showed that the recoveries for all analytes with certified or reference values were within ±10% of the expected value, thus confirming its nutritional labelling.

Other experimental examples include the rapid analysis of major and trace elements in milk and milk products using an Agilent 7900 ICP-MS with optional Ultra High Matrix Introduction UHMI technology and Integrated Sample Introduction System (ISIS 3).

Examining the safety of milk

Foods of animal origins such as dairy milk go through additional scrutiny to detect levels of veterinary drugs. Without a sophisticated approach for testing dairy milk samples, analytical challenges are likely to arise due to the complexity of the matrix and the number of pharmaceutical analogues needed to monitor. Furthermore, the different legislative requirements of various countries require sample referencing that meets a wide variety of regulatory conditions.

Watch our webinar on Food Testing Using Atomic Spectroscopy>

Another factor to consider when examining the safety of milk is the responsible use of pesticides within established limits in animal feeds from which dairy milk is extracted, and in other plant-based ingredients which may be added to other milk products. To validate this, LC/MS, GC/MS, and Q-TOF workflows offer food testing labs the solutions needed to accurately measure pesticide levels in milk samples.

Exposing fraudulent milk to preserve its authenticity

Globally, milk continues to be one of the most adulterated food and beverage products on the market. For example, in 2008 the analysis of dairy milk powder from Minhe Hui County, China, revealed the contamination of melamine—an organic compound used to manufacture fertilisers and concrete—to be 500 times the maximum limit of melamine found in test samples at that time.

More recently in Southern Asia, the Punjab Food Authority seized almost 80,000 litres of milk to combat the adulteration of dairy products in the local metropolis. The milk was flagged due to the addition of urea and water.

In addition to deceiving consumers and manufacturing producers, food fraudsters can seriously affect the health outcomes of individuals. Fortunately, innovations in analytical instrumentation and testing methods are exposing these unlawful acts to reinstall consumer confidence by validating the authenticity and safety of products such as milk and infant formulas.

For example, the Agilent 8890 GC and the Agilent 5977B GC/MS single quadrupole mass spectrometer have been used to detect and quantify β-sitosterol in ghee (milk fat) samples to check for vegetable oil adulteration. The presence of β-sitosterol is associated with low quality and is a potential indicator of adulterated milk. Results showed that 2.24 ppm β-sitosterol was found in the ghee sample on which the study was performed.

Both targeted and non-targeted approaches can be used to identify known compounds in milk and other food authenticity testing. The latter is beneficial if adulterants in milk are new or have not been previously identified by food testing labs. Non-targeted methods using quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometers, for example, create a chemical fingerprint of authentic foods, making it more difficult for food fraudsters to cheat the global food supply chain.

Forming partnerships to eliminate milk fraud

As milk sale projections are estimated to increase over the next few years, and with wider varieties of product choices in stores and online, it is important that companies like Chemetrix continue to work in partnership with its food testing customers to eliminate the threat of milk fraud while preserving its nutritional values, safety, and authenticity. Above all, manufacturers of milk products must adhere to multiple food regulations relating to quality and safety which are constantly being updated. Chemetrix is here to support our customers so that consumers of their products have confidence in their purchase choice for the nourishment of themselves and their families.

Parts of this article have been adapted from the original published by Agilent.

]]> https://chemetrix.co.za/how-real-is-your-milk/feed/ 0 https://chemetrix.co.za/food-testing-workflows-webinar-series/ https://chemetrix.co.za/food-testing-workflows-webinar-series/#respond Fri, 19 Jan 2024 09:02:05 +0000 https://chemetrix.co.za/?p=5316 Continue reading "Food Testing Workflows Webinar Series"]]> Ensuring food safety and quality is more crucial than ever. For African countries, where ensuring food safety and quality is paramount for the well being of their citizens and the success of their exports, Agilent expertise can make a difference.

Chemetrix offers Agilent’s comprehensive suite of solutions that helps you identify pesticide residues, verify label claims, and safeguard food authenticity. Now, a new free-to-access series of webinars expands on necessary knowledge for this valuable process that ensures our food is safe and nutritious.

These webinars are designed to help you learn more about the latest trends and technologies in Food Testing Workflows. Agilent experts will present webinars on the latest applications, soil analysis, laboratory performance improvement, time and cost savings opportunities, and much more.

Webinar 1 – Agilent LC Solutions for Food Testing and Food Fortification

HPLC is a powerful analytical technique widely used in the food industry, research labs and commercial testing labs for quality control, safety assessment, and nutritional analysis

Speaker

Ansuman Mahato
Application Engineer – HPLC
Agilent Technologies

Webinar 2 – Latest Applications and Workflows for the Food Market

Food laboratories find themselves in a frequently changing environment where they need to update their analytical procedures to follow new legislation and upcoming regulations.

Speaker

Cecilia Mazza
Product Specialist, EMEA IDO – Chemistries & Suppliers
Agilent Technologies

Webinar 3 – Sample Prep for Food Analysis: An overview about available techniques

In this presentation we will cover most common Sample Preparation Techniques for Food Analysis and related products, as well as most advanced, specific and unique solutions.

Speaker

Giorgio Ferlat
MSc, EMEAI IDO Product Specialist, Chemistries and Supplies
Agilent Technologies

Webinar 4 – Multiresidue Pesticide Analysis in Food using GC/MS/MS and LC/MS/MS in Accordance with the SANTE 11312/2021 Guideline

Pesticides play an important role in the agriculture and food industries to improve crop yield and food production. However, the quantity of pesticide residue remaining in or on commodities are tightly controlled to avoid contamination of the food chain and the environment. Therefore, regulatory agencies have set maximum residue levels (MRLs) for hundreds of pesticides and their metabolites.

Speaker

Laurent Pascaud
Spécialiste Produits GC & GC/MS
Agilent Technologies

Webinar 5 – Plant and Soil Analysis for the Determination of their Inorganic Content

Testing soils and plants for trace and major elements is important for the development, the growth and the plant metabolism. This is also critical for monitoring the plant nutrients composition and assessing the potential for contamination of food crops.

Speaker

Uwe Noetzel
EMEAI Technical Coverage and Solutions
Agilent Technologies

Webinar 6 – Analysing Trace and Major Elements in Food Samples

To ensure food safety and safeguard human health, the characterization of the elemental composition of a wide range of food types is required. Since the concentration ranges for different elements vary significantly across different foods, various methodes can be used for sample characterization.

Speaker

Uwe Noetzel
EMEAI Technical Coverage and Solutions
Agilent Technologies

Webinar 7 – Better Lab Sample Turnaround – Saving Time and Solvent per run

Nowadays, laboratories have the challenge of becoming progressively more productive as well as focusing on continuous improvements.

Speaker

Giorgio Ferlat
MSc, EMEAI IDO Product Specialist, Chemistries and Supplies
Agilent Technologies

Webinar 8 – Quantitative Analysis of Mycotoxins in Foods by Triple Quadrupole LC/MS

Pesticides play an important role in the agriculture and food industries to improve crop yield and food production. However, the quantity of pesticide residue remaining in or on commodities are tightly controlled to avoid contamination of the food chain and the environment. Therefore, regulatory agencies have set maximum residue levels (MRLs) for hundreds of pesticides and their metabolites.

Speaker

Henry Russell
LCMS Product Specialist
Agilent Technologies

Agilent food and beverage testing products and services keep you at the forefront of the latest trends, ahead of issues, and focused where you need to be to deliver the highest quality and value to your customers.

Join this informative and exciting webinar series that will explore topics such as the latest applications and workflows for the food market, sample prep for food analysis, plant and soil analysis for inorganic content and much much more. The webinar series is free but registration is required.

Register now >