AOTF Infrared Spectrometer to measure lactose, fat and proteins in milk - request a quote
Customer inquiry:
what can you tell about potential use of AOTF to measure lactose, fat and proteins in milk?
Del Mar Photonics reply:
Yes, it is possible, see for example, publication below. Obtaining the spectrum takes a few seconds. It could be on-line, with a liquid flow-cell. One of the systems was built for the US Department of Agriculture.
Near infrared spectroscopy for biomonitoring: cow milk composition 
measurement in a spectral region from 1,100 to 2,400 nanometers (pdf)
R. Tsenkova*, S. Atanassova†, K. Itoh‡, Y. Ozaki§, and K. Toyoda*
*Department of Environmental Information and Bio-production Engineering, Kobe 
University, Kobe 657, Japan; 
†Department of Mathematics and Physics, Thracian University, Stara Zagora 6000, 
Bulgaria;
‡Laboratory of Agricultural Process Engineering, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 
060, Japan; and
§Department of Chemistry, Kwansei Gakuin University, Nishinomiya 662, Japan
ABSTRACT: The potential of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS; 1,100 to 2,400 nm) 
to measure fat, total protein, and lactose content of nonhomogenized milk during 
milking and the influence of individual characteristics of each cow’s milk on the 
accuracy of determination were studied. Milk fractions were taken during 
milking, twice per month, for 6 mo. Samples were taken every 2nd and 4th wk at 
the morning and the evening milkings. Teatcups were removed at each 3 L of milk 
yield as determined with a fractional sampling milk meter. A total of 260 milk 
samples were collected and analyzed with an NIRSystem 6500 spectrophotometer 
with 1-mm sample thickness. Partial least squares (PLS) regression was used to 
develop calibration models for the examined milk components. The comparison with 
the reference method was based on standard error of cross validation (SECV). The 
obtained SECV varied from .107 to .138% for fat content, from .092 to .125% for 
total protein, and from .066 to .096% for lactose content, and the accuracy of 
the reference method (AOAC, 1990, method No 972.16) was .05% for all measured 
milk components. The obtained models had lower SECV when an individual cow’s 
spectral data were used for calibration. The reduction of SECV for each cow’s 
individual calibration, when compared with SECV for the set of all samples, 
differed with the different constituents. For fat content determination, the 
reduction reached 22.46%, for protein 26.40%, and for lactose 31.25%. This 
phenomena was investigated and explained by principle component analysis (PCA) 
and by comparing loading of PLS factors that account for the most spectral 
variations for each cow and the measured milk components, respectively. The 
results of this study indicated that NIRS (1,100 to 2,500 nm, 1-mm sample 
thickness) was satisfactory for nonhomogenized milk compositional analysis of 
milk fractions taken in the process of milking
Key Words: Milk, Fat, Protein, Lactose, Spectroscopy
 
AOTF Infrared Spectrometer -
request a quote
Del Mar Photonics offer a handheld infrared spectrometer based on the 
acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF). This instrument is about the size and 
weight of a video camera, and can be battery operated. This unique, patented 
device is all solid-state with no moving parts. It has been sold for a wide 
variety of applications such as liquid fuel analysis, pharmaceutical analysis, 
gas monitoring and plastic analysis.

Features:
• Portable
• High Speed 
• NO moving parts
• Fiber Probe Option 
• Infrared (1.2 – 2.5 µm)
• Diffuse reflectance and transmission
Applications:
• Plastics identification
RAVEN – 
Portable Plastic Identifier
• Pharmaceutical analysis 
• Environmental Monitoring 
• Research & Development 
• Liquid fuel analysis
• Gas monitoring
 
Del Mar Photonics develop and supply dedicated AOTF Spectrometers. Send us the identification problem that you want to solve and we'll estimate suitability of AOTF technology for the job.

Del Mar Photonics, Inc.
4119 Twilight Ridge
San Diego, CA 92130
tel: (858) 876-3133
fax: (858) 630-2376
    Skype: delmarphotonics
sales@dmphotonics.com
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