The Institute of Food Research, UK, teamed up with Oxford Instruments, Concord, Mass., to develop improved ways of testing meat in the food chain. That’s why they launched a new benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) instrument, Pulsar, which makes NMR spectroscopy available for routine testing.
This system allows for food manufacturers to analyze dozens of samples a day, taking 10-15 minutes per test. This makes the system ideal for high-throughput screening or pre-screening ahead of more time-consuming and expensive DNA testing.
At the moment, the system can differentiate between whole cuts or chunks of beef, lamb, pork and horse. Further development work will be carried out over the coming months to extend the detection of small amounts of minced meat in the presence of another.
Oxford Instruments Industrial Analysis
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www.oxford-instruments.com/pulsarnmr