Food Analysis Facility


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Food Analysis lab with Richard Zbasnik

The Food Processing Center can assist with prompt quality and proximate analysis of natural products, food ingredients and finished products ranging from direct testing for nutrition label requirements to shelf life analysis of lipid stability and total amounts of antioxidant rich polyphenols. If you have a need to know the composition of your food, but lack the facilities to determine it yourself, let us help.

With a range of analytical equipment and services, the Food Processing Center has the capability to assist with other analytical testing and needs as well.  Let us know your goals and needs and we will let you know what we can do to help.

Contact
Richard Zbasnik
zbasnik@unl.edu
402 472 4694


Equipment

  • High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Ion Chromatography (HPIC)
  • Gas Chromatography with Flame-Ion Detection
  • Atomic Absorption of Minerals (sodium, potassium, calcium, iron and some heavy metals)
  • Particle Size Analysis
Proximate and Compositional

The basic composition of foods including the proximate composition (gravimetric analysis) and more specific analysis of food components.

TestMethodMinimum
pH Direct measure 5 ml
Moisture Convection oven or vacuum oven drying 10 g
Ash Muffle furnace 10g
Total Protein Dumas method 1g/1ml
Crude Lipid (non-dairy) Solvent extraction by Sohxtech system 10g
Crude Lipid (dairy) Modified Mojonier 10g
Proximate Composition Moisture/Ash/Protein/Lipid with carbohydrate by calculation 40g
Total Sugars HPLC separation with PAD detection 5 g
Dietary Fiber Enzymatic digestion and gravimetric determination 5g
Minerals Sodium/Potassium/Calcium/Iron by atomic absorption 10g
Fatty Acid Profile Gas chromatography with FID 1 to 40g depending on lipid content
Cholesterol/Plant Sterols Gas chromatography with FID 1 to 40g depending on lipid content
Total Fructooligosaccharides Enzymatic digestion and HPLC separation with PAD detection 5g
Total Galactooligosaccharides Enzymatic digestion and HPLC separation with PAD detection 5g
Total Sugar Alcohols HPLC separation with PAD detection 5g
Grocery Label Proximates with Sugars, Dietary Fiber, Minerals, Cholesterol and Vitamin D as needed 100g
Restaraunt Label Proximates with Sugars, Dietary Fiber, Sodium, and Cholesterol as needed 100g

Beer and Alcoholic Beverages

Additional testing of the alcohol content of beverages or foods with added liqures.

TestMethodMinimum
Alcohol by Volume (ABV) Distillation 350 ml/12oz
Alcohol by Volume (ABV) Gas chromatography with FID 10ml
Standard Reference Method Spectrophotometric analysis 10ml
International Bitterness Units Extraction and spectrophotometric analysis 20ml
Total Calories Real extract, total proteins and total ash 350 ml/12oz
Oxidative Damage of Lipids

Add quantitative data to your shelf life testing of lipid damage.

TestMethodMinimum
Peroxide Value Spectrophotometric analysis 2g extractable lipids
Thiobarbituric Reactive Species Spectrophotometric analysis 1g extractable lipids
Conjugated Dienes Spectrophotometric analysis 1g extractable lipids
Hexanal Gas chromatography with FID 10g
Polyphenols

Determine the total amounts of polyphenols that act as antioxidants in a product, or the amounts of classes of polyphenols.

TestMethodMinimum
Total Polyphenols Folin-Ciocalteu’s reagent with spectrophotometric analysis 5g
Total Flavonoids Aluminum complex with spectrophotometric analysis 5g
Total Tannins Vanillin reaction with spectrophotometric analysis 5g
Total Anthocyanins pH differential with spectrophotometric analysis 5g
Miscellaneous

Additional testing regularly performed for analysis of foods and natural products.

TestMethodMinimum
Carotenoids Extraction with HPLC separation with UV/VIS detection 5g
Chlorophyll Extraction with HPLC separation with UV/VIS detection 5g
Organic Acids HPLC separation with UV/VIS detection 2g/5ml
Non-Protein Nitrogen Trichloroacetic acid percipitation with Dumas 5g/5ml
Chitin Alkaline digestion with gravimetric detection 10g
Vitamin A HPLC separation with UV/VIS detection 10g
Vitamin E HPLC separation with UV/VIS detection 10g