The ACTALIA reference laboratory of Poligny (France), specialised in food analysis, has performed an evaluation study of the CDR FoodLab® system on important parameters of quality control in the dairy sector such as: ammonia on serum, urea on milk and lactose on lactose-free milk. The CDR FoodLab® methods were compared to the reference methods, obtaining excellent correlation coefficients.
Below is an abstract of the document prepared by the ACTALIA technicians.
Analyses and analysed samples
The ACTALIA laboratory performed an evaluation of the CDR FoodLab® system determining its accuracy, precision and stability in relation to the following parameters
- Lactose on milk – HPLC method (ISO 22662)
- Urea on milk – method in differential pH metry (NF EN ISO 14637)
- Ammonia on serum – enzymatic reference method (NF V 04-217)
For the evaluation of accuracy for each parameter, approximately 30 samples were analysed with CDR FoodLab® and with the reference methods commonly used by Actalia.
Regarding the assessment of precision, analyses were performed on approximately 30 samples analysed in duplicate.
For each parameter, the stability of the CDR FoodLab® system was evaluated, performing duplicate analyses on 3 samples with different concentrations and repeating this procedure for 10 work cycles.
Lactose on milk analysis
Analyses were performed on 26 lactose-free milk samples in various degrees in a range of 0.01 -1.5 g/100g. The samples were created by mixing completely lactose-free milk with milk containing normal lactose.
The analysis of lactose on lactose-free milk was performed with CDR FoodLab® and with the HPLC method (ISO 22662) . The correlation R2 = 0.9882 is excellent considering the type of analysis and the difficulty in performing the reference methods.
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The repeatability of the CDR FoodLab® system was better than that obtained with both the “normalised” rHPLC (ISO 22662) and the differential pH-metry (ISO 26462) reference methods.
Regarding the assessment of the stability of the FoodLab® CDR system, duplicate analyses were performed on two different lactose concentration levels, running 10 measurement cycles for each concentration, obtaining optimal CDR system stability.
Analysis of urea on milk
Analyses were performed on 34 milk samples with variable urea concentration in a range of 150 – 950 mg/L
The analysis of urea on milk was performed with CDR FoodLab® and with the reference method in differential metric pH (NF EN ISO 14637). The correlation between the CDR FoodLab® method and the reference method is excellent (R 2 = 0.9887) considering the type of analysis and the difficulty of performing the reference method.
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The repeatability of the CDR FoodLab ® system was comparable to the reference method.
Regarding the assessment of the stability of the FoodLab ® CDR system, analyses were performed in duplicate on 3 different levels of concentration of urea, running 10 cycles of measurements for each concentration, obtaining an optimal stability of the CDR system.
Analysis of ammonia on serum
The repeatability of the CDR FoodLab ® system was significantly better than that of the reference method (1.59 ppm vs 2.5 ppm).
Regarding the assessment of the stability of the CDR FoodLab® system, analyses were performed in duplicate on 3 different levels of ammonia concentration, running 10 cycles of measurements for each concentration, obtaining optimal stability of the CDR system.
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The repeatability of the CDR FoodLab ® system was significantly better than that of the reference method (1.59 ppm vs 2.5 ppm).
Regarding the assessment of the stability of the CDR FoodLab® system, analyses were performed in duplicate on 3 different levels of ammonia concentration, running 10 cycles of measurements for each concentration, obtaining optimal stability of the CDR system.
Conclusions
The French reference laboratory ACTALIA, specialised in food analysis, has performed a study comparing the reference methods and the methods implemented on the CDR FoodLab® analysis system for the determination of lactose on milk , urea on milk and ammonia in serum.
ACTALIA found that regarding the determination of these three parameters, the CDR FoodLab® system demonstrated excellent reliability.
The high correlation coefficients with the reference methods obtained demonstrate excellent accuracy.
The accuracy of the 3 methods evaluated was comparable to that of the reference methods, even better in the case of ammonia determination.
For the three parameters considered the CDR FoodLab® system has a high instrumental stability.
Furthermore, ACTALIA ascertained that the CDR FoodLab® system is very simple to use and, with minimal technical training, the operator is able to obtain results more quickly than would be the case with the use of traditional laboratory methods.
