Testing for Food Preservatives
Chemical Testing

Testing for Food Preservatives

Boomtown Devs

Is There a Test for Food Additives?

A food additive is any chemical substance, such as sweetening agents, synthetic pigments, antioxidants, dyes, molds, and banned food additives, that is added to food during the production, transportation, storage, or preparation processes. Food additives have the ability to preserve flavor, enhance taste or appearance, and even slow the onset of spoilage, but not all additives are for the consumer’s benefit and may cause unwanted health effects. A few of the most common unhealthy additives include sodium nitrate, hydrogenated vegetable oil, dyes such as yellow #5 and yellow #6, BHA (butylated hydroxytoluene) and BHT (butylated hydroxyanisole).

Not all additives are included on a food’s ingredient label so in order to test, analyze and confirm if there are harmful food additives present, chromatography, spectrophotometry, or electroanalysis is generally performed.

How do you Test for Preservatives in Food?

When testing for preservatives in food through chromatography, the food is separated by passing it in a solution or suspension within a medium where the components of the food can move at different rates. Once the components are separated the output can be placed into a detector that reads the contents of the mixture.

When using spectrophotometry, it is a standard and inexpensive technique that passes a light beam through a sample and each compound in the solution absorbs, transmits, or reflects light over a certain wavelength on the electromagnetic spectrum. This technique is typically used to measured nucleic acids, proteins, and bacterial density within a product.

With the electroanalysis method, potential, charge, or current is used to determine a chemical’s concentration or to characterize the chemical’s reactivity. The concentration of a chemical can be determined directly from a sample without pretreatment and with little matrix effects.

How do you Perform a Preservative Efficacy Test?

The Antimicrobial Preservative Efficacy test helps to determine if the chosen preservative is appropriate for a product formulation and is generally performed during the research and development stage to ensure it is effective up to the product’s expiration date. This technique measures the efficacy of antimicrobial preservatives added to consumable items during the manufacturing process or product use.

The efficacy of the preservative is evaluated by comparing the initial level of microorganisms to a test sample at various time intervals over a period of time (typically 28 days) at a specified temperature to see whether there is an eradicated or reduced amount of microbial population present.

How can Chem Service Analytical Standards be used to Test for Food Preservatives?

Some food additives are safe for consumption, while other additives should be avoided by consumers all together to avoid adverse short- and long-term health effects. Use the highest level of purity standards for testing for the presence of metals, dyes, and pesticides with Chem Service’s variety of analytical standards. As a leader in in design, development, production and servicing of organic neat and synthetic reference materials, you can trust Chem Service products to let you know when there are additives in your food products. Call our team today at (610) 692-3026 to see which option is most effective for your needs and requirements.

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