Patent ID: 9678015
Date: 2017-06-13
CPC Classifications: G01J,G01N

Claim:
1. A method for elemental analysis on a moving snack food material, the method comprising the steps of: continuously moving a material under a laser induced breakdown spectroscopy system, wherein the material comprises a heterogeneous surface, and wherein the material is a plurality of solid snack food products comprising a structural integrity and the heterogeneous surface comprises a plurality of particles adhered on the solid snack food products, the solid snack food products dissimilar from the particles; sending a laser beam to the heterogeneous surface of the material, said laser beam generating energy of between about 1.00 to about 90.0 J/cm transmitting emission generated by the plasma to a spectrum analyzer of the laser induced breakdown spectroscopy system to measure a wavelength corresponding to an element; and analyzing a spectrum of the emission to determine an amount of the element on the material, said method preserving the structural integrity of the plurality of solid snack food products and the particles adhered to the solid snack food products.