Milk's inorganic content analysis via laser induced breakdown spectroscopy

Eleni Nanou; Dimitrios Stefas; Stelios Couris

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.135169

Milk's inorganic content analysis via laser induced breakdown spectroscopy

Food Chem. 2023 May 1:407:135169. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.135169. Epub 2022 Dec 9.

Authors

Eleni Nanou¹, Dimitrios Stefas¹, Stelios Couris²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece; Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences (ICE-HT), Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Patras 26504, Patras, Greece.
² Department of Physics, University of Patras, 26504 Patras, Greece; Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences (ICE-HT), Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Patras 26504, Patras, Greece. Electronic address: couris@iceht.forth.gr.

PMID: 36508863
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2022.135169

Abstract

In the present work, the inorganic content of different milk samples is investigated by Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technique. Milk samples of different animal origin, in liquid, lyophilized powder, and ashed forms were studied using both infrared (1064 nm) and visible (532 nm) laser excitation conditions and the optimum experimental conditions for the measurement of the inorganic elements present in low concentration, were determined. Spectral features of major (Ca, Na, Mg and K) and minor minerals (P, Zn, Cu and Si) were detected and identified. The LIBS results for the different milk samples were found to correlate perfectly with the results obtained from atomic absorption measurements, demonstrating the potential of LIBS technique for the fast and in-situ qualitative characterization of the inorganic content of different animal origin milk samples.

Keywords: Elemental composition; Foodstuff; LIBS; Milk; Plasma spectroscopy.

MeSH terms

Animals
Lasers
Milk* / chemistry
Minerals* / analysis
Sodium / analysis
Spectrum Analysis / methods

Substances

Minerals
Sodium