Moisture content is a key parameter for all food and feed laboratories. It is needed for dry base calculations as well as for the general water content determination. In milk and other liquids, the amount of the total solids TS is an important parameter.
The TGM800 is a thermogravimetric analyzer designed to determine moisture content of materials using a loss-on-drying technique. Mass loss of the sample is measured as a function of the oven temperature by controlling the atmosphere and ventilation rate. An accurate determination of moisture content in milk products provides important information related to the food quality and safety (texture, taste, microbial stability). Moisture is also a key variable used to calculate a products purity, yield, and/or resulting constituent analysis on a dry basis.
The instrument supports the use of either a 3.8 cm diameter aluminum foil crucible with a 1-gram nominal sample mass, or a 6 cm diameter aluminum foil crucible with a nominal sample mass of 3 grams. Method analysis length can be programed to a fixed time or dependent on the sample mass constancy. The moisture result is TGM800 schematics calculated as a percent mass loss for each sample and reported at the end of the analysis.
The instrument consists of a computer, an integrated four-place balance, and a multiple sample oven that allows up to 16 samples to be analyzed simultaneously with a maximum temperature of 175 °C.
Some key features:
- Supports 1.5 in diameter aluminum foil crucibles
- Supports 2.4 in diameter aluminum foil crucibles
- Analysis can be performed in air or nitrogen atmosphere
- Automated crucible and sample mass recording
- Optional fixed time or constancy method parameters
Table 1: Typical results total solids TC of milk products for LECO TGM800 moisture analyzer. Values for cheese are moisture in wt %, for milk TS=Total solids
This data in table 1 shows perfect precision and accuracy for some typical liquid dairy products. More data is available in the following application notes. It has to be remarked, that the analysis time in the method with automatic constancy recognition is dramatically shorter than the fixed analysis time methods, where usual standard parameters as ~ 3h for milk and ~1.5h for cheese have been chosen.
The LECO advantages for moisture in milk samples can be summarized:
- Automatization for high sample throughput
- No manual time consuming weighing – drying – desiccator – weighing – calculation.
- Fully documentation for data security and analytical performance
- Convenient handling of samples
- Analysis anywhere on site possible (depending on local circumstances)
- Faster analysis times if using mass constancy drying parameters with automatic endline detection.
- Reliability and highest precision
- LECO service team with more than 25 subsidiaries around the globe.
If you are interested in further information, feel free to contact us.
Register now to gain insights into the capabilities and advancements of automated thermogravimetry with the LECO TGM800 System
