Using microwave-accelerated digestion instead of dry ashing during sodium analysis of low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella

• Published in: JDS communications Vol. 2; no. 1; pp. 13 - 15
• Main Authors: Grossbier, D.T., Schoenfuss, Tonya C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.01.2021; Elsevier
• ISSN: 2666-9102; 2666-9102
• DOI: 10.3168/jdsc.2020-0008

[Display omitted] •Microwave-accelerated digestion (MAD) is faster than conventional digestion for mineral analysis•Cheese composition affects dielectric properties of food and can require modification of microwave parameters to achieve complete digestion•Low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella samples digested by MAD and dry ashing pretreatments were equivalent Mineral analysis of cheese products is a labor- and time-intensive process. Pretreatment using dry or atmospheric wet ashing to decompose organic matter before measurement on a spectrometer can take more than 24 h to complete. Samples of low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella (LMPS) cheese were digested using microwave-accelerated digestion (MAD) and conventional dry ashing. A comparison of 23 samples, in duplicate, was performed to determine equivalency. A two one-sided test (TOST) analysis showed that the confidence intervals were within acceptable differences for standard method variation (less than 70 mg/100 g per International Dairy Federation method 119:2007). Bias was observed for the quantification of sodium in microwave-digested samples, averaging 14 mg/100 g higher. Based on the TOST criteria, we concluded that the methods are equivalent.