Quality Metrics: Measuring Moisture in Tomato Sauce

Quality Metrics: Measuring Moisture in Tomato Sauce

Today’s blog will talk about moisture measuring in tomato sauce!

A large tomato processing company that owns 333 km of tomato plantations and processes fresh tomatoes in 22 other facilities. Its annual production capacity comprises processing around 500.000 tons of tomato paste into various drums and containers. 53.000 tons of canned tomato paste for all types of end users, 3,000 tons of tomato powder, and around ten tons of lycopene. You might wonder how they measure the moisture content in all of their tomato products so quickly. Read on to learn about moisture measuring in tomato sauce!

Sartorius Moisture Analyzer’s Impact on Measuring Moisture in Tomato Sauce

Since July 2008, the company has been successfully using the Sartorius moisture analyzer LMA200. Its quick analysis times and exceptionally high accuracy enable the company to meet its increased demands for effective process monitoring. 

When choosing a moisture analyzer, the company searched the market to find a fast and dependable method of moisture analysis to help improve its working efficiency. The company found the Sartorius LMA200 Moisture Analyzer equipment to fit the existing applications and requirements. The LMA200’s technical performance features and performances were highlighted at a meeting.

To help verify the suitability of the LMA200 and to support the staff in defining optimal operating parameters, the Sartorius application engineer then performed various comparative tests for this customer at their application lab. The previous method took over four hours to measure moisture using vacuum-drying ovens. However, using Sartorius LMA200 moisture analyzers takes less than two minutes to complete the samples’ moisture analysis!

How Moisture Testing Works

The LMA200 operates according to the loss-on-drying method, or the moisture content in a given sample is calculated based on its weight loss that occurs as the sample starts to dry. The sample is then heated by the LMA200 using some microwave radiation. The radiation is absorbed by the dipolar molecular components of a sample, like primary water, and then it is converted into heat. The advantage of this method is that only some of the sample is directly heated, as is the case through conventional oven-drying methods, but rather its water content. Although microwave analyzers marginally heat volatile compounds, like fats or oils, this volatile portion’s heating is significantly reduced compared to other drying methods. Values that are measured using the LMA200 thus closely approximate the actual water content in a sample.

To learn more about Sartorius products and how they can help measure moisture content in various samples, visit Lab People today!

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 13th, 2023 at 1:03 pm. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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