Spectroscopic analysis of milk fat and its mathematical evaluation

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to verify the applicability of Raman spectroscopy for measuring the content of fat in milk and dairy products. Accurate monitoring of milk nutritional compositions is essential for producers of milk and also for milk and dairy products quality control. Raman spectroscopy enables effective material identification and offers rapid, non-contact, nondestructive, reagent free measurements and possibility to insert devices for automatization. These are the main benefits of this method comparing to traditional time-consuming techniques. The statistical method Principal component analysis was performed for large spectral datasets evaluation. For specific spectral information was used linear regression. Liquid milk samples as well as dried milk droplets with fat concentration range 0,1 % to 3,5 % and dairy products with 10 % and 82 % fat concentration were used for analyses by Raman spectroscopy. Röse-Gottlieb gravimetric method and butyrometric method served as a standard control methods for correlation with experimental spectroscopic data for milk fat analysis. Methods accuracy is discussed in the paper. Quite high agreement is obtained for Raman spectroscopy. © 2016 North Atlantic University Union NAUN. All rights reserved.