Like every foodstuff destined for human consumption, meat is strictly regulated. It is important to determine the makeup of meat to confirm that a product is safe, and the faster these confirmatory analyses can be conducted, the quicker product quality can be verified. This has a direct impact on overall production speed.
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Determining meat’s moisture content can help to identify its quality and safety. Meat’s moisture content affects its texture, taste, leanness and microbial stability. Its moisture content also determines the level of retained water and the additive solutions used in flavoring the product.
The TGM800 from LECO is an automated thermogravimetric moisture analyzer able to considerably expedite moisture content analysis.
Depending on sample size, up to 16 samples can be simultaneously analyzed. The instrument requires minimal sample preparation, also reducing labor requirements and minimizing the potential for human error. For example, the TGM800 can analyze ten 6.5 g meat samples in just 4.5 hours.
The use of quartz drying sand can further increase the TGM800’s analysis time, though this does add additional preparation time, reducing the number of simultaneous samples that can be analyzed.
This is because one sample crucible must be dedicated to pure quartz sand for reference purposes. Using this adapted method, it was possible to analyze nine 6.5 g meat samples mixed with 3.0 g of quartz sand in just 2.5 hours.
Fifteen smaller sample sizes of 1.0 g could be analyzed in just 3 hours without the support of quartz sand. These samples were analyzed in 1.5 hours with quartz sand.
About LECO Corporation.jpg)
In 1936, the Laboratory Equipment Company introduced the first rapid carbon determinator to the American iron and steel industry. Today, 75 years later, LECO is recognized globally as a leader in innovative analytical instrumentation, mass spectrometers, metallography and optical equipment, and consumables.
LECO's broad selection of innovative instrumentation incorporates trendsetting automation, easy-to-use software, and the latest technologies into ergonomic designs. This results in instruments that are fast, accurate, and user-friendly—allowing you to increase productivity by achieving a level of throughput that was once unobtainable for many lab managers.
Our four diverse product lines offer you analytical solutions in five different market areas, meeting objectives for a wide variety of applications and scientific techniques. These market areas are described below.
Inorganic analysis
Determinators for carbon, sulfur, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen used for metal and inorganic analyses; glow discharge spectrometers for bulk and/or quantitative depth profile analysis.
Organic analysis
Determinators for carbon, sulfur, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen; analyzers for fat, protein, ash/moisture, mercury, and calorific value.
Microstructural analysis
Metallographic sample preparation equipment; macro and microindentation hardness testers; microscopes; image analysis and management systems; optical accessories.
Separation science (Mass spectrometry)
Fast GC-TOFMS and LC-TOFMS systems with ChromaTOF® software dedicated to a wide variety of organic applications; GCxGC-TOFMS and GCxGC FID/ECD systems offer increased separation power.
Ceramics
Crucibles, ladles, stopper rods, nozzles, kiln furniture, and pressed refractory shapes for the foundry and investment casting industry.
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