NMRPulsar ™

Benchtop NMR for Food Authenticity Screening

Recent advances in benchtop Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) mean that it issuitable as a fast and easy technique for assessing suspected edible oil
contamination/adulteration and meat speciation. The PulsarTM system
can be used to discriminate between different oil types and provide
quantitative information for mixtures. The NMR spectra of triglycerides
contain valuable information indicating what the meat species is.
Benchtop NMR for Meat Speciation*• Meat authentication problems include:• Product recall; brand damage; drop in sales• Loss of consumer confidence• Example:• Substitution of beef meat with undeclared horse meat•

Olefinic peaks
indicate the total
unsaturated content

Bis-allylic
peak indicatespolyunsaturatedcontent

The fatty acid component of triglycerides found in animal
tissue is known to differ between species.

Typical 60 MHz NMR spectra from different meat species%

Why use benchtop NMR as a screening tool?
60MHz 1H NMR

DNA test

Minutes

Up to several days

Complexity

Can be carried out
by non-scientists;
no need to be in lab
environment

Requires sophisticated labs
and experienced personnel

Cost persample< £20;
mid-size retailer will
spend <£80,000/year£90-£500;
mid-size retailer will spend£0.5-1m/year

Speed• At 60MHz, using Pulsar we can clearly “see” thisdifference in the 1H NMR spectrum as differences in thesize of the olefinic resonances (5 to 5.8 ppm), which are ameasure of the total unsaturated fat content.

*Patent applied for:United Kingdom Patent Application No. 1315962.9

Example of data analysis
Principal Component Analysis (PCA)† can be used to classify

Benchtop NMR for Hazelnut OilAdulteration• Adulteration of Extra Virgin Olive oil withdifferent meat types.

lower cost and poorer quality oils isa known problem.

• This is a challenge for otherGoose
Pork

techniques, such as FTIR, as theBeef

olive oil and hazelnut oil spectra areextremely similar.

LambHorse• However, their NMR spectra show

sufficient differences to allow betterlevels of detection of the adulterant.

Calculated mono- and poly-unsaturated composition of a set of 30 pure oliveand hazelnut oils from Pulsar NMR spectraContact us today for a demonstration.
We offer remote demonstrations or you can send
us your samples.

† PCA is not part of the standard Pulsar software package

contact us now for more information industrial@oxinst.com or visit www.oxford-instruments.com/

2070

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