Condiments & Sauces

The vast number of types and preparations of condiments offer a sensational experience of taste and flavors but is very demanding in terms of quality control. FT-NIR analysis is a key tool to ensure easily the quality of the various raw materials and finished products.

FT-NIR Analysis of Condiments and Sauces

There is a broad variety of condiments to choose from for industrial or home cooking and to complement the dish during the meal. The products and their ingredients being liquid, semi-solid or solid can all be analyzed using FT-NIR spectroscopy, but require choosing the right sample presentation and measurement setup.

Especially for creamy or paste-like products accurate and reproducible measurements can be a challenge. Bruker offers with transflection measurements a technology, which collects scattered as well as transmitted light and is therefore providing excellent repeatability.

Measuring paste-like products with FT-NIR in transflection for maximum accuracy.

Application Areas

For ketchup, the most important parameters such as Brix, salt content, pH and acidity can easily be analyzed with just one measurement in transflection using ready-to-use calibrations.

For more complex table sauces which sometimes show regional variations, the calibration methods can be easily adapted by implementing a limited number of customer samples.

Prepared mustards are one of the most popular condiments with a wide range of strengths and flavors, from sweet to spicy. The finished product can be analyzed in reflection for parameters like dry matter, acidity, salt and pH.

As guidance even viscosity and density can be analyzed by NIR within the same analysis. The quality of seeds which is dominating the properties and taste of the final product can be also controlled using FT-NIR spectroscopy.

A base mayonnaise is an emulsion of edible oil, egg yolk and vinegar in water. The quality control for the raw materials by FT-NIR is the first step for a high quality product. The fat content in a standard mayonnaise varies from 50 to over 80%, with some low fat variations having less than 15% of fat.

The texture can reach from a light cream to a thick gel with different optical properties. For the common parameters fat, dry matter, acidity and salt ready to use methods are available for a quick start.

Vinegar is used on its own in food preparation, but is also a valuable ingredient for other condiments. With a simple NIR measurement in a flow cell, the analysis of dry matter, acidity, ash, pH and citric acid is easy to do.

Derived from vinegar, there are many different recipes for vinaigrettes and creamy dressings with ingredients like yoghurt, sour cream or mayonnaise. Due to the high water content and low reflectivity of such samples the NIR analysis on most of the parameters is performed in transflection.

Soy sauce is a fermented food with a high salt concentration. Due to the high water content the NIR transmission measurement and the analysis on nitrogen, salt and alcohol content must be performed under tight temperature control.

The analysis is performed in a 1mm water-cooled flow cell and an optional autosampler can be attached to the MPA II FT-NIR spectrometer.