NMR Spectrometers Efficiently Differentiates Meat Species within Ten Minutes

•   December 12,2014
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Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a physical occurrence in which the nucleus of a magnetic field absorbs and re-emits electromagnetic radiation. It is mainly used as an analytical technique and in diagnostic body imaging.

NMR serves the end-users with a wide variety of applications. It is used in different field for different applications such as medicine, chemistry, purity determination, non-destructive testing, acquisition of dynamic information, data acquisition in petroleum industry, magnetometers, quantum computing, process control and flow robe for NMR spectroscopy.

The report titled “Global Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectrometer (NMR) Industry Market Research Report 2014,” provides in-depth analysis of the market trends, drivers & restraints, applications, types, technologies, geography, competitive scenario and market forecast of the global NMR market.

According to recent news reports, institute of food research (IFR) in collaboration with the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), has used the NMR to differentiate between horse meat and beef by observing and analyzing the chemical composition of the fat in beef and horse meat.

According to BBRSC, fat in the horse meat holds more of poly-unsaturated chains as compared to the fat in beef. The proton NMR measures the fatty acid composition and obtains a ‘fingerprint’ and with the help of the ‘fingerprint’ the species of the meat sample can be known.

It takes only ten minutes for technician to recognize and differentiate the meat sample with the help of NMR spectrometer. “It’s a stroke of luck really that some of the most important meats turn out to have fat signatures that we can tell apart so easily with this method. We think this testing method should work well at key points in the supply chain, say at meat wholesalers and processors,” said Kate Kemsley, head of the scientific support unit at the IFR.

The NMR spectrometer has greater advantages over the traditional testing means such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The major advantages are that with minimal training anyone can extract the fat fractions easily and it also the results can be extracted within ten minutes.

“This means that for the same outlay of cost and time, more high-throughput testing is possible compared with biological methods,” Kemsley said.