A novel scanner, which uses a mixture of ultraviolet and infrared rays to probe the content of milk, will help dairy firms and scientists to more accurately analyse products and ingredients, its inventor says.
It may look small and simplistic, but beneath that shiny surface the Spectro-Quad-Sensor is capable of using eight different wavelengths across the spectrum, from ultraviolet to infrared, to provide online product analysis every 10 seconds.
“There is no one else that can do something like this at the moment,” according to Wassilios Papadakis, sales manager at Lune, the German company behind the Spectro-Quad-Sensor.
Analysis equipment has taken on new importance in the dairy sector, and in food production generally, as companies search for new ways to add value to their products and improve quality.
Several projects are underway in the global dairy industry, particularly in Australia and New Zealand, to examine the make-up of milk for hidden added value potential.
Lune said its Spectro-Quad-Sensor could better measure a range of qualities in milk, including protein, water, fat and lactose content, as well as assess mixtures and overall product characteristics.
This, it said, was because the scanner combined four measurement techniques – transmission, scattering, fluorescence and refraction – to build up a more accurate image of the product.
That could also help dairy firms reach and maintain increasingly strict quality standards and adhere to more detailed labelling requirements, such as allergen labelling, set down by regulatory authorities.
Lune's Papadakis said: “Interest [in the scanner] has been quite high because it enables the producer to guarantee to consumers that the product is 100 per cent what it says it is on the label.”
Big dairy firms were showing interest in the Spectro-Quad-Sensor at the Anuga FoodTec expo last week. A Westfalia subsidiary of the GEA group was in negotiations with Lune over a supply deal.
Papadakis said Lune's scanner had several other advantages over competitors because it was cheaper, could continuously analyse products every 10 seconds, with results online, and required virtually no training to use.
The firm has applied for patents on its Spectro-Quad-Sensor.
