Using microwave-accelerated digestion instead of dry ashing during sodium analysis of low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella

D T Grossbier; Tonya C Schoenfuss

doi:10.3168/jdsc.2020-0008

Using microwave-accelerated digestion instead of dry ashing during sodium analysis of low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella

JDS Commun. 2020 Dec 11;2(1):13-15. doi: 10.3168/jdsc.2020-0008. eCollection 2021 Jan.

Authors

D T Grossbier¹, Tonya C Schoenfuss¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Food Science and Nutrition, University of Minnesota, 1334 Eckles Ave., St. Paul 55108.

Abstract

Mineral analysis of cheese products is a labor- and time-intensive process. Pretreatment using dry or atmospheric wet ashing to decompose organic matter before measurement on a spectrometer can take more than 24 h to complete. Samples of low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella (LMPS) cheese were digested using microwave-accelerated digestion (MAD) and conventional dry ashing. A comparison of 23 samples, in duplicate, was performed to determine equivalency. A two one-sided test (TOST) analysis showed that the confidence intervals were within acceptable differences for standard method variation (less than 70 mg/100 g per International Dairy Federation method 119:2007). Bias was observed for the quantification of sodium in microwave-digested samples, averaging 14 mg/100 g higher. Based on the TOST criteria, we concluded that the methods are equivalent.