Plant-Based Food Laboratory Testing and Analysis

Plant-based food manufacturers have the same requirements and face the same challenges as producers across the food industry. R&D and quality-control labs focus on expanding their product range and improving existing recipes. New ingredients that may help to maximize taste, consistency, color, appearance, and aroma are tested, and formulas may undergo slight adjustments to perfect results. Weighing and recipe-management systems must support these tiny tweaks. At the same time, food producers must work to meet production budgets, optimize shelf life, decrease time-to-market, and meet regulatory requirements. Intuitive formulation management, precise and repeatable weighing, and secure data handling can help with plant-based food formulation and quality control as producers seek to meet consumer demand for high-quality plant-based food sources.

Areas that require reliable testing in R&D, production and quality control are similar to those used across the food industry. Goods-in may require weighing, moisture content testing, purity determination via UV Vis, density, refractive index, or a combination of plant-based food testing methods. Formulation may require weighing, dosing, and moisture testing. Moisture content, melting/dropping point, and weighing, may be helpful in production. Outgoing products may need additional moisture testing or quality control.

Of course, proximate analysis is also important for plant-based food ingredients declaration purposes. Energy, fat, saturated fat, carbohydrates, sugar, protein and salt, also called the Big 7, likely need to be declared. Requirements for allergen labeling and measurements of dry matter, water content, ash, fiber, minerals and vitamins may also be important, depending on the product and region. METTLER TOLEDO offers an extensive portfolio of laboratory equipment to support these key plant-based food testing areas.

For plant-based food development, a variety of lab instrumentation is required. Some instruments are required to ensure plant-based food testing methods are met. Others are designed to ensure that quality control requirements are fulfilled.

As mentioned above, proximate analysis is important. This can include titration for determination of salt or chloride content, or to assist in protein quantification according to the Kjeldahl method. For fat determination, a Soxhlet extraction is the reference method in most cases, which requires a balance. Carbohydrate content and the vitamin content of plant-based foods can be determined using UV Vis. Moisture analyzers can help with dry matter or moisture content determination, while Karl-Fischer titration is used for specific water-content assessment (which can be important for shelf-life and quality). Balances also play a key role when determining ash or fiber content.

Formulation is also critical at this stage. This means developing recipes for plant-based foods based on the weight of particular ingredients, many of which may be rather small in comparison to the final product or batch. This requires the right laboratory balance, as well as reliable tracking and tracing capabilities to help ensure that the right ingredients are added, which reduces rework and waste. Laboratory instrumentation including pipettes may be even more important than usual when looking to develop meat, milk and egg analogs.

The lab instrumentation noted above, including titrators, moisture analyzers, balances, UV Vis and Karl Fischer titrators, and melting/dropping point instruments are all important for plant-based food quality control. This includes the control of incoming goods and the individual ingredients that are common in plant based foods (meat analogues, etc.). METTLER TOLEDO offers robust instrumentation designed to deliver accuracy and to assist you with the quality control of plant-based food ingredients. Our robust portfolio of lab instrumentation may be of particular importance when working with atypical ingredients (such as fermented products, novel seed flours, microalgae and mycoproteins).

Quality control in plant-based food production often includes the laboratory instrumentation noted above, as well as accurate laboratory balances, moisture analysis, UV Vis and titration equipment. It may also require formulation software, larger scales and weigh modules, and product-inspection equipment.