X-ray scattering for the determination of fat content in dairy products
2011
Elshemey, Wael M.
The scattering of X-rays from biological samples has been shown to produce characteristic profiles, which depend on their molecular structure. The highly ordered fat molecules in an adipose tissue result in a relatively sharp scattering peak at 1.1nm⁻¹ with a scattering profile, which is considerably different from the scattering profile of a water-rich tissue. The latter is characterized by a broad scattering peak at about 1.6nm⁻¹. A biological sample consisting of a mixture of both adipose and a water-rich tissue is expected to show a scattering profile, which is directly linked to the relative contribution of each component and would reflect the percentage by volume of each component in the mixture. In this work, X-ray scattering profiles of a number of dairy products and water are measured. The values of two selected X-ray scattering characterization parameters (I₁/I₂% and areas A₁/A₂% of the scattering peaks at 1.1 and 1.6nm⁻¹, respectively) are plotted against the fat content of each of the measured dairy samples. Results show a strong linear dependence of each of the X-ray scattering parameters and the fat content of the investigated dairy products. These results suggest a possible use of such technique as a new, simple and straight forward method for determination of fat content of dairy products that would join and support the currently available techniques.
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