How is the Flash Smart Elemental Analyzer supporting quantitative elemental analysis in the food cycle?

The food cycle includes a variety of processes and materials that are carefully regulated by authorities and various international organizations to ensure product quality and consumer and environment safety.

One of the main tools for quality control of materials in the food cycle is elemental characterization. Elemental analysis utilizes carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen, which help determine the structure of an unknown compound, as well as to evaluate the structure and purity of a synthesized compound.

The Thermo Scientific™ FlashSmart™ Elemental Analyzer (EA) enables quantitative elemental determinations at high and low levels of concentrations for solid and liquid samples in one single system, adapting to your needs and covering wide spectra of analysis in the food cycle. The FlashSmart EA copes effortlessly with modern laboratory requirements such as accuracy, day to day reproducibility and high sample throughput. 

Why is elemental analysis important for the food cycle quality control?

1. Elemental characterization of soils, leaves, plants, crops and other materials

Agricultura relies on the determination of nitrogen, carbon, Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and sulfur to set agronomy management plans. Nitrogen, carbon and TOC determinations give also information on the deficiency or excess of nutritional elements in soils and plants. Sulfur determination is critical as the lack of sulfur in vegetables effects their growth and the quality of proteins.

2. Food and animal feed

are made up of chemical compounds that determine flavour, colour, texture and nutritional value that is regularly analysed by manufacturers to comply with official regulations. Determination of protein content, through the determination of nitrogen content, in food and animal feed is one of the tests in Official Methods for processed and raw products. Official regulations establish the protein content and labelling requirements of the nutritional features, which enable consumers to perform price and quality comparisons based on % protein declarations.

3. Production of compost

is one of the most efficient ways of recycling waste. Due to the heterogeneity of the material used, accurate control of parameters such as nitrogen, carbon, TOC and sulfur content in the recycled waste is a key factor to ensure the quality of the final product that can be used as fertilizers in agronomy. However, agricultural practices have influence on the environment and potentially on consumer safety, creating the demand for the characterization of environmental samples, including determination of nitrogen, carbon and sulfur in fertilizers and in agricultural water resulting from the use of fertilizer 

How is FlashSmart EA used for elemental analysis in food cycle?

Table 1 gives an overview of different materials and applications that can be addressed with our extensive portfolio of FlashSmart EA configurations 

Table 1. Thermo Scientific FlashSmart EA application 

The globalization of the food and feed market, and the associated production and recycling processes, demand accurate and reliable control of products characteristic for the protection of commercial value, but mainly to safeguard consumer health and manufacturer reputation. The Thermo Scientific FlashSmart EA offers a field proven solution for quantitative elemental  determinations of variety of materials associated with the food cycle. The elemental analysis is performed based on the combustion (Dumas) method, allowing easy, fast, cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to analyse your samples. The Dumas method is approved by AACC, AOAC, AOCS, ASBC, IDF, IFFO and ISO