X-ray Scattering for the Determination of Fat Content in Dairy Products
- Citation:
- Elshemey, W. M., "X-ray Scattering for the Determination of Fat Content in Dairy Products", Radiation Physics and Chemistry, vol. 80, issue 7, pp. 779–781, 2011.
Abstract:
The scattering of x-rays from biological samples has been shown to produce characteristic profiles which depend on their molecular structure. The highly ordered fat molecules in an adipose tissue result in a relatively sharp scattering peak at 1.1nm-1 with a scattering profile which is considerably different from the scattering profile of a water-rich tissue. The latter is characterized by a broad scattering peak at about 1.6nm-1. A biological sample consisting of a mixture of both adipose and a water-rich tissue is expected to show a scattering profile which is directly linked to the relative contribution of each component and would reflect the percentage by volume of each component in the mixture. In this work, x-ray scattering profiles of a number of dairy products and water are measured. The values of two selected x-ray scattering characterization parameters (I1/I2% and areas A1/A2% of the scattering peaks at 1.1 nm-1 and 1.6 nm-1 respectively) are plotted against the fat content of each of the measured dairy samples. Results show a strong linear dependence of each of the x-ray scattering parameters and the fat content of the investigated dairy products. These results suggest a possible use of such technique as a new, simple and straight forward method for the determination of fat content of dairy products that would join and support the currently available techniques.
Notes:
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