Carl Zeiss MicroImaging - Quality Analysis for Quality Food: Spectrometers and Measuring Systems

The increasing demands for quality and production control in the area of food and agriculture requires high levels of reliability, stability and reproducibility of measuring results – and thus the quality of the equipment used. Online monitoring of constituents like moisture, protein, fat or colour improves plant productivity, minimises waste and reduces lab analysis.

Food and agriculture spectrometer systems

For this Carl Zeiss has developed spectrometer systems for:

• On-line, in-line and at-line QC in production and the laboratory
• Monitoring of moisture, protein and fat in powder, liquids or solids
• Colour measurements

The benefits for customers are:

• Accurate, stable, reproducible results at high speed — even in harsh environments
• Increase productivity by reducing sampling errors, waste and laboratory costs
• UV/VIS/NIR measuring probes for different tasks
• Non-destructive, non-contact operation for in-line measurement of colour and ingredients

Diode array spectrometers

Carl Zeiss has developed the MCS 600 and the CORONA PLUS systems for measurements in the UV/visible and NIR spectral range. MCS 600 is especially suitable for measurements in the UV range. It is very versatile and delivers a very high degree of flexibility.

CORONA PLUS systems are used when portable systems are needed, 12V power supply is required, and a maximum of sensitivity is necessary. CORONA PLUS allows new innovative food and agricultural applications, from the continuous on-line monitoring of dryers and blenders during the manufacturing process, to installation on harvesting machines for on-line analysis in the field.

Automatic and large-quantity sample measurement spectrometer

The TURNSTEP on the CORONA PLUS spectrometer now permits large quantities of samples to be measured in the laboratory within a short period of time, leading to a reduction of sampling errors. This means that quality-critical parameters of the constituents used for beverages and other foodstuffs can now be measured with higher accuracy — an essential requirement for ensuring constant quality of the end product.

The TURNSTEP is fully supported by the CORONA software. This permits automatic sample measurement at different speeds and with automatic starting and stopping of the measuring process.

Automatic reference measuring head for conveyor belts or manufacturing lines

ARMOR is the name of the new automatic reference measuring head for contact-free in-line measurement on conveyor belts or manufacturing lines. It features an automatic reference system which for the first time permits precise measurement even if there are large distances between the measuring head and the sample material. This allows measurements to be performed in areas where an even mound height of the sample material cannot be ensured.

Custom spectrometer systems

Besides standard spectrometer systems, Carl Zeiss also offers customised systems.

Meat and spice measuring/analysis systems

The meat/spice analyser can analyse meat and sausages at-line in only 15s. This instrument can also be used as a spice analyser: it allows the inspection of delivered spices and mixtures. The meat analyser allows product and batch inspection by comparisons via the absorption curve, quantitative information about some ingredients via appropriate calibrations such as water percentage, fat percentage, protein percentage, collagenic connective tissue ('BEFFE') percentage and colour measurement (e.g. for spices).

Malt and green malt analyser

The malt and green malt analyser can precisely analyse several parameters in malt, green malt and grain in less than 10s during the measurement. Typical parameters include water, extract, protein, soluble nitrogen, VZ45 and viscosity. On request, boiling colour, pH value and ß-Glucan can be analysed.

Fries analyser

The fries analyser allows the quick analysis (just 15s) of water and fat content, directly at-line during the production process, thereby simultaneously determining the final colour value of deep-fried fries even before deep frying.