Nutritional Testing

Knowing the nutritional composition of food and feed ingredients, or finished products, is a primary need for all the actors of the supply chain. In particular:

• It is required to determine quality and price of products when trading them.
• When developing new food products at R&D early stage, food companies need to monitor the nutritional content of products, as consumers are more and more concerned by the composition of what they are eating (low fat, low sugar, …).
• Regulation is becoming more stringent about the obligation to label properly the products for sale on the food market.
• The range of methods that are performed to determine composition is very wide and depends on the nutritional content that are analysed (oils, proteins meal, cooked products, fruits or vegetables, etc.).

Our testing services help clients identify the nutritional composition of food, food supplements, and feedstuffs in terms of their macro elements content and qualitative properties. Nutritional tests include the determination of proteins, carbohydrates, fibers, fats, vitamins, minerals and a wide range of phytochemicals.

For basic analyses, like the determination of proteins, carbohydrates, fibers and fats, as the quantities being measured are usually significant, in the order of a few percent, the methods do not generally require very advanced measurement systems. They are based on titration, weighting and wet chemistry methods that have been established as the gold standard for many years (e.g. the Kjeldahl method to measure nitrogen and convert it into proteins content). The exception is for components present in low amounts like vitamins, minerals and a wide range of phytochemicals that require sophisticated state of the art chromatographic methods like HPLC, LC-MS, ICP-MS, ICP-OES coupled to specific detectors.

As the quantities being measured are usually significant, in the order of a few percent, the methods do not generally require very advanced measurement systems. They are based on titration, weighting and wet chemistry methods that have been established as the gold standard for many years (e.g. the Kjeldahl method to measure nitrogen and convert it into proteins content).

Request an Analysis

To learn more about our food safety services, or to request and analysis for your business, please contact us.