Energy-dispersive spectroscopy for the quantitative determination of the major chemical elements in milk

Abstract:

The present preliminary study aims at the rapid quantitative determination of the major chemical elements in the ashes of raw milk samples, using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. The precision of the method was satisfactory (variation coefficient ≤ 5%). The mean values (in mmol·kg-1) obtained from the analysis of 32 raw milk samples showed good agreement with data from the Brazilian and international literature: K (26.1 ± 4.6), Ca (33.8 ± 3.7), P (28.4 ± 2.7), Na (21 ± 3.3) and Mg (4.7 ± 0.5). Residual Cl concentration (19.0 ± 3.3 mmol·kg-1) was lower than expected due to incineration losses. The results suggest a good application potential of the method for other dairy products.

Conclusion:

The methodology and the sample preparation protocol presented in this study showed its potential application for the rapid determination of the major minerals (Ca, P, Na, K, and Mg) and residual chloride in the ashes of milk samples. The technique is relatively easy, not much time consuming, and did not utilize chemical reagents, which is aligned with the new tendency of more green chemistry analysis. Due to the CoronaVirus restriction and no access to labs, it was not possible to determine the method's accuracy, which is the next step in validating this method. However, the consonance of the results of the applied standardless approach with the literature data gives us the confidence to present this method as a valid option even to further the development of this analysis for other dairy products.

Further works should focus on comparing and validating this methodology against official methods and studying this sample preparation for other dairy matrices.

There are no references cited in the copied part.

[134] De Paula, I. L.; Renhe, I. R. T.; Stephani, R.; Perrone, I. T.; De Carvalho, A. F.; Wolfschoon-Pombo, A. F. Energy-dispersive spectroscopy for the quantitative determination of the major chemical elements in milk. Research, Society and Development, v. 10, n. 10, e280101018910, 2021.