Food & Beverage Sector

The manufacture of food and beverage products is Ireland’s most important indigenous industry with a turnover of €27.5 billion. The beverage industry in Ireland is estimated to be worth approximately €1.5 billion. The sector employs over 250,000 people and supplies the majority of produce to Ireland’s €15 billion domestic food sector. Ireland is the largest net exporter of dairy ingredients, beef and lamb in Europe and the largest exporter in Europe of powdered infant formula. Photonics makes significant contributions to the research and development of a variety of different food applications.

Related Case Studies

In the food and beverage sector CAPPA focuses on various areas including but not limited to;

Detection

  • Detection and identification of bacteria and other micro-organisms
  • Melamine detection
  • SERS detection of pesticides in foods
  • Detection of the quality of ingredients
  • Identification of additive components by NIR imaging methods
  • Determination of fat, protein, caesin, total solids and somatic cell count by NIR reflectance spectroscopy

Composition

  • Composition of a wide variety of foods and beverages including fats, oils, grains and cereals
  • Multivariate analysis: can be used for a wide range of applications
  • Mineral composition in cheeses with different ripening times using fibre-optic probe
  • Chemical characterization by NIR spectroscopy using chemometric tools
  • Determination of adulteration

Measurement

  • Quickly and accurately measures fat, moisture, protein, lactose, casein, total solids and other important constituents
  • Liquids can be measured more quickly by NIR than by primary method for moisture, protein, fat, fatty acids, ethanol, density, solids, organic acids, carbohydrate profile and other important constituents

Analysis

  • Analysis of carotenoids, powders, seeds and grains
  • Analysis of dairy products
  • Analyse ingredients, process and final product samples
  • Fat and dry matter analysis of cheese for process control
  • Rapid, multi-component analysis simultaneously
  • Analysis of effluents
  • Analysis of powder rehydration