Optimization of a portable NIR device for the optical supervision of milk coagulation process

The coagulation of milk is the fundamental process in cheese-making, which is based on a gel formation as consequence of physicochemical changes taking place in the casein micelles. Monitoring the whole process of milk curd formation is a dedicated process for dairy researchers and cheese companies. In addition to advances in composition-based applications by means of NIR spectroscopy, researchers are pursuing dynamic applications that show promise especially with regard to tracking a sample in situ during processing The objective of this work is to propose an original portable NIR equipment to supervise the milk coagulation process. The experiments have been carried out on sheep and goat milk, by immersion of the probe directly in the liquid and acquiring spectrum each 1 minute during the 30 minutes of coagulation process. The increasing values of transflected light registered allow identifying, based on PCA analysis, the different kinetics that occur along the gel formation and the time to reach the optimal gel firmness to cut the cur

Supervision of milk coagulation with scatter red LED light

For cheese production clotting time is prederteminated using a proteolytic enzyme titulation test (Chamorro and Losada 2002). Thus an expert operator decides the optimum cutting time (always delayed compared to clotting time) based on his own subjective evaluation of textural and visual properties of the curd (Castillo et al. 2000). Expert judgment usually gives acceptable results, yet variability in the optimal assessment of cutting time leads to affects further cheese processing operations (pressing and ripening). The aforementioned reasons suggest the importance of an objective and non-destructive method to determinate optimal cutting time, which would allow indeed the automatic supervision of the cheese clotting process. The goal of this work is a prospective study for the supervision of milk coagulation with scatter red LED light

A portable NIR device for the optical supervision of milk coagulation process

The coagulation of milk is the fundamental process in cheese-making, based on a gel formation as consequence of physicochemical changes taking place in the casein micelles, the monitoring the whole process of milk curd formation is a constant preoccupation for dairy researchers and cheese companies (Lagaude et al., 2004). In addition to advances in composition-based applications of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), innovative uses of this technology are pursuing dynamic applications that show promise, especially in regard to tracking a sample in situ during food processing (Bock and Connelly, 2008). In this way the literature describes cheese making process applications of NIRS for curd cutting time determination, which conclude that NIRS would be a suitable method of monitoring milk coagulation, as shown i.e. the works published by Fagan et al. (Fagan et al., 2008; Fagan et al., 2007), based in the use of the commercial CoAguLite probe (with a LED at 880nm and a photodetector for light reflectance detection)

Nariz electrónica: ¿Herramienta para la calidad en la industria agroalimentaria?

El término “sentido electrónico” refiere la posibilidad de reproducir los sentidos humanos mediante matrices de sensores y sistemas de reconocimiento de patrones. La nariz electrónica ha sido uno de los dispositivos que más expectativas ha despertado, aunque como se verá en este artículo su estado de desarrollo es aún incipiente cuando se compara con la complejidad del sentido del olfato humano. Este artículo revisa las posibilidades de aplicación de las narices electrónicas en el ámbito agroalimentario desde un punto de vista realista, en función tanto de los parámetros que caracterizan a los sensores que constituyen las matrices sensititivas de estos equipos, como de la selección de la aplicación correcta