The human and environmental health firm, which is based in Massachusetts in the US, said its Spectrum Two Trans Fat Analysis System analyses the infrared spectrum of the fat and oil present in a food to compute the trans fat content. It is portable, requires minimal preparation and can deliver results in less than a minute.
"This compares very favourably with previous GC [gas chromatography]- based methods ... which can be relatively time consuming," Jerry Sellers, product planning manager at PerkinElmer told FoodProductionDaily.com
Other benefits
Aside from the speed of the test, it offered a range of other benefits, Sellers told this site. "Very little operator training is required as the system uses a specially developed custom software protocol, no special sample preparation and the hardware is very low maintenance. The system also requires no chemicals for sample preparation and provides confidence in the results due to the implementation of an official method."
The test had been developed in response to high demand in countries that had introduced legislation and labelling rules concerning trans fat content, he explained. "We are seeing demand among oils producers and refiners in both US and regions of Europe, Middle East and Asia, with strongest interest at the moment in US, India and China.
"I suspect the demand at the moment is related to levels of interest in the labelling regulations pertaining to trans fat content in the countries to which the oils producers market their product. These regulations vary somewhat from country to country."