Chemical tests on raw, pasteurized and skim milk are of ever greater importance in the quality control of dairy products, in improving dairy cattle health and in optimizing their feeding, consequently lowering production costs.

The FoodLab system developed by CDR, makes it possible to determine in just a few minutes the concentration of some parameters in whole or skim, raw or pasteurized milk, without any previous treatment of the sample, thus lowering the risk of possible contamination during handling.
The analyzer works on samples of cow 's, sheep 's, goat 's and buffalo milk

The Foodlab system is composed of an portable analyzer using sophisticated spectrophotometry and a series of dedicated reagents, developed by the CDR research laboratories, and using previously dispensed, non-returnable (disposable) cuvettes, requires neither specialized personnel nor reagent preparation.
The individual test is carried out by dispensing into a test tube a minimum predefined amount of sample, which, through appropriate reactives, develops a colorimetric reaction.

Actually chemichal tests for the milk quality control carried out using FOODLAB are:


L-Lactic acid
Lactic acid is the product of the fermentation of lactose mainly through microbic activity. Its concentration depends on the total bacterial charge and it can be a useful indicator of a good state of milk conservation. Moreover, the thermic treatment of milk produces a microbiologically pure product (e.g. UHT) but does not modify the concentration of lactic acid which therefore becomes an index of its " prior history ". Such tests can also be carried out on derivatives in powder form (whey, milk, additives…) after reconstituting the product in water.


Chloride
Chloride testing makes it possible to identify any additions of salt water to the milk. Furthermore, the animal affected by mastitis shows chloride values that are significantly higher in just-milked milk.


Milk Urea Nitrogen
The contents of urea in untreated milk is related to the quantity of protein in the animal's fodder and therefore makes it possible to set an adequate diet. Thanks to the extreme speed and ease of performing the analysis, controls can be carried out directly "in the barn". Such tests enable the identification of any additions of urea to the milk to increase the contents of total nitrogen.


Ammonia
Ammonia is an important indicator of milk's hygienic quality, applicable in all phases of the production chain, reliable, simple and inexpensive. In fact, ammonia, as a metabolite of microbial activity, grows as the bacterial charge increases in the milk and it is not sensitive to thermal treatments, thus making it possible to monitor not only raw milk but also pasteurized milk.


Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP)
Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is an enzyme normally present in crude milk that becomes inactive under thermal treatment conditions with slightly higher temperatures than those required for the destruction of pathogenic bacteria. Therefore the research of ALP in pasteurised milk assists in the verification that the process has occurred correctly. A correctly pasteurised milk can maintain a "contamination" of crude milk to a maximum of 0.1% that corresponds to 350-500 U/ml.


Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2)
Hydrogen peroxide can be utilised as a cleaning agent in milk treatment equipment but these procedures must be made in such a way as to impede an eventual contamination of the milk.


e-Fructosyl-lysine (Furosine)
The assessment of thermic treatment is very important in determining the quality of milk . In fact such thermic treatment is required both in relation to the use of milk in the production process, and for the obvious necessities of commercialisation. However the high temperatures used in some processes (UHT milk, powdered milk), denature the proteins and produce milk of an inferior quality. Currently one of the most widely used parameters for identifying the thermic treatment of milk is FUROSINA (a product using the Maillard reaction), which is however both very expensive and very time consuming since it requires the use of the HPLC, an instrument that can only be used by expert personnel. An INNOVATIVE test is the e-FRUTTOSIL-LISINA , which is also based on the Maillard reaction and which can therefore be used as an indicator of the thermic treatment of milk.


Peroxidase
Lactoperoxidase is an enzyme present in milk in very big quantity. It is inactivated by thermal treatments with considerably high temperatures (70° C for 15 minutes or 80°C for 30 seconds) that are conditions more drastic then those required for a normal pasteurization process. For this reason, the persistence of lactoperoxidase activity in pasteurized milk can be used as a good indicator for the quality of the product. A “light” temperature treatment that preserves this enzyme can be done only to a raw milk of good microbiologic quality.
CDR quantitative method gives precise indications about the thermal treatment of milk and in addition is an indicator of milk quality: the higher is the peroxidase value, the lower is the importance of the alterations of the original characteristics that it has encountered.