Method for determining the fatty acid profile of milk by infrared spectroscopy
AssigneeValorex
InventorGuillaume Chesneau
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The nutritional quality of milk lipids is determined by a method for predicting percentages of minor fatty acids in milk. A database is created by correlating known fatty acid profiles of reference milk samples obtained by gas phase chromatography to mid-infrared spectra to obtain calibrations, wherein the calibrations vary in accuracy from one fatty acid to another. The determination of a milk fatty acid profile to be analyzed through infrared treatment is limited to some fatty acids with a satisfactory calibration. Equations to predict the percentages of minor fatty acids are developed using correlations of fatty acids with satisfactory calibrations.
Claims16
A method for determining the nutritional quality of milk lipids, involving the steps consisting of
- considering a defined number of reference milk samples with known fatty acid profiles determined through gas phase chromatography;
- creating a database by subjecting said reference milk samples to mid-infrared radiation to obtain reference spectra and associating respectively said reference spectra to said known fatty acid profiles to develop calibrations, wherein the calibrations vary in accuracy from one fatty acid to another, and wherein the calibrations comprise satisfactory calibrations from major fatty acids in the known fatty acid profiles;
- subjecting a test milk sample to be analyzed for lipid nutritional quality to mid-infrared radiation to obtain a sample spectrum;
- comparing said sample spectrum to the reference spectra to infer a sample fatty acid profile, wherein said sample fatty acid profile is limited to percentages of the major fatty acids in the known fatty acid profiles with satisfactory calibrations;
- developing prediction equations to correlate the percentages of the major fatty acids in the known fatty acid profiles with satisfactory calibrations to percentages of minor fatty acids in the known fatty acid profiles;
- and
- predicting percentages of minor fatty acids in the test milk sample using the prediction equations and the sample fatty acid profile.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.