Scientific and Digital Systems R. K. Puram, Delhi

Water Activity Meter Aqualab (Decagon Devices, USA): The instrument is used to measure the Water Activity in Dairy, Meat and other Food products. The instrument employs chilled mirror dew point technology for Water Activity analysis. The instrument has measurement speed of less than 5 minutes and accuracy of +/- 0.003 aw. The instrument has a water activity measuring range of 0.030 to 1.000 aw. The instrument is software supported which helps the user to organize and visualize their measurement data. The instrument is calibrated to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) traceable temperature standard.

Manufactured by Stable Micro systems, U.K.. The VolScan Profiler or Bread Volume Tester is a benchtop laser-based scanner that measures the volume of bread and bakery products up to maximum dimensions of 600mm length and 380mm diameter. It enables the rapid 3-dimensional digitisation of products, the results of which may be processed mathematically to yield detailed dimensional information for immediate use or future retrieval. It uses a non-contact measurement method and therefore offers considerable advantages over contact and displacement alternatives, particularly for the 3-dimensional assessment of soft products. It gives rapid assessment of Bread volume, Specific volume, Length, Maximum width, Maximum height, Volume yield per 100g flour.

food texture analyser is used for sensory evaluations like freshness, spreadability, tenderness, springiness, gumminess, hardness, firmness, consistency, fracturability etc of variety of food products viz: bread, biscuits, jams, jellies, vegetables, fruits, chocolate, rice, cereals, dough and diary products. sms food texture analysers also measure the extensibility of dough using kieffer dough extensibility fixture. The quantity of sample required for testing does not exceed 10-15g and the instrument provides direct comparison of dough and gluten extensibility thus obviating the need for an extensograph. stable micro systems texture analysers also measure dough extensional rheology under conditions of strain similar to those of baking expansion and enables the rheological properties of both dough and gluten to be measured during biaxial stretching. This obviates the need of an alveograph. when a crisp food is broken or crushed, characteristic sounds are produced due to brittle fracture of the cell walls and the resultant acoustic emissions in the audible frequency range of 3 – 12khz are used to quantify sensory crispness. Now for the first time, acoustic emission recording and analysis has been done using sms texture analyser by integrating the data into texture exponent software, a recognized texture analysis software package from stable micro systems. This facilitates the collection of acoustic data as an integral part of the test alongside force, distance and time data to provide the ‘4th dimension in texture analysis’. stable micro systems texture analysers also measure powder flow characteristics. Almost any sample capable of flow can be tested. Controlled flow offers the ability to test in a manner that is complementary to your process or need. One may simply determine particle cohesion after compaction, flow after compaction, resistance to compression, batch and source variation, resistance to flow.

Manufactured by Perten Instruments, Australia, Super Mill 1500 is an economical grinder for Food and Agricultural products. It has easily adjustable grind settings to handle most difficult grinding jobs. The Mill is perfect for grinding wheat, barley, corn and sorghum. It is even suitable for high fat and fibrous samples. It possesses an additional advantage of preventing any moisture loss. It gives reliable results and is compact and lightweight and produces minimum sound.

Manufactured by Perten Instruments AB, Sweden, SKCS 4100 is the official measurement for wheat hardness in several countries. It is also standardized according to AACC 55-31. SKCS determines the characteristics for each and every kernel -one by one- in a fully automatic mode. Moisture, hardness, diameter and weight are analysed for each individual kernel. SKCS 4100 is the only instrument designed to help breeders determine wheat uniformity & thus helping in increasing yields. It supports full communication with other computers, networks, peripherals such as printers.

Manufactured by Perten Instruments, Australia, RVA is a continuously recording rotational viscometer used to measure the starch quality & weather damage in grains by evaluating a- amylase activity. Other applications include protein gelation, melting profiles of gums  etc. It is commonly used for wheat, corn, rice, barley, modified starches, extruded feeds and foods such as snacks and breakfast cereals, milk powder, cheese etc. With RVA, the full starch pasting test can be done in just 13 minutes. RVA offers an alternative to Visco Amylograph with many additional advantages. AACC, ICC and RACI have approved the RVA test methods. The salient features of the instrument include temperature control from 0 to 99 degree Celsius, programmable test conditions, infinite temperature and speed variation in a single test as per the pre- defined user profile, online viscosity, speed and temperature measurement and small sample requirement (3-4 gm).  RVA Application for Dairy Industry: The RVA can be programmed to replicate the processing conditions of dairy products. Each processing step can be controlled and the viscosity of the product measured throughout the processing cycle. RVA can also be used in product development to examine the effect of thermal processing on milk proteins and the whey proteins interactions with other ingredients. There is also an RVA based method for characterizing the re-heat rheological properties of skimmed milk powders.

Oxygen Permeation Analyser Model 8001 with two test chambers. The instrument uses a single proprietary Coulometric Oxygen sensor for determination of Oxygen transmission rate through flat barrier films, finished packages and PET Bottles with Oxygen measurement range of 0.008 – 432,000 cc/m2/day (.0005 – 28,000 cc/100in2/day). The instrument conforms to ASTM D – 3985 standard. The instrument can be calibrated through standard certified gas cylinders and films. The instrument comes with a smart controlled software which takes control of all the analysis, functions and settings on the analyzer. With a wide range of features including base lines, zero prior to testing and re-zero during testing, the analyzer can be controlled according to any defined testing procedures.

Perten Instruments AB, Sweden provides two types of mills. Hammer Mills for grinding grains, pellets, meals, feed and forage. These mills are used where homogeneous sample preparation is required for conducting tests such as Falling Number, Wet Gluten Analysis, Gluten Index Estimation, Reference Chemical Analysis, NIR Analysis etc. These include Lab mill 3100 & 120. Disc Mills are used for grinding grains, peas, corn, soybean etc. for moisture testing. It is an approved grinding method for estimation of Particle size Index of wheat (AACC- 55-30). These includes Lab mill 3303 & 3600.

Manufactured by Perten Instruments AB, Sweden, Inframatic is a Near Infrared (NIR) instrument designed for determination of moisture, protein, oil, starch, fiber, ash, hardness, specific weight and much more in less than a minute. Its accuracy and speed make it ideal for use at all grain receivals/elevators, grain trading operations, flour mills, malting and other oilseed processing facilities. Inframatic models have official approvals from international associations like AACC, OIML RI etc. All NIR instruments being secondary analysis equipments need calibrations for working on them. Inframatic comes with inbuilt calibrations according to the user requirements and later on new calibrations can also be developed and added in the existing calibration list of the instrument.

Manufactured by Systech Instruments Ltd, U.K. The Instruments is used for measuring the concentration of modified atmosphere gases in the headspace of flexible and rigid packages such as flow wrap packaging, thermoform- fill- seal tray, bulk bags, injection vials, HDP bottles, plastic and foil sachets and cans. It is possible to use the instrument for analysis of oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen (balance gas). The Instruments utilizes very advanced non-depleting zirconia technology for oxygen analysis and infrared technology for carbon dioxide analysis. The Instruments also has a built in printer for printing the test results, which are also displayed on the LCD.

Manufactured by Perten Instruments AB, Sweden, The Glutomatic System measures Gluten Index, wet gluten content, dry gluten content and gluten water binding. Perten’s Gluten Index method is the world standard for gluten testing and is approved by International Standards like AACC/No. 38-12, ICC/No.155 & 158 and wet gluten method by ICC No. 137/1 and ISO 7495. Glutomatic System is used for quality control and segregation of incoming grains and also process control and quality verification of flour. Flour users and bakeries can use it to measure flour characteristics at breeders and grain trader’s end and at flour mills. It helps identifying and separating high quality grain and flour to maximize its value. It does not require any sample conditioning and chemicals for testing. A complete test takes less than 10 minutes.

Manufactured by Perten Instruments AB, Sweden, The Falling Number method is the world standard for measuring the alpha-amylase enzyme activity in both flour & meal of wheat, durum, rye, barley, other grains & malted cereals. The method was developed by Mr. Seve Hagberg & Mr. Herald Perten in late 1950’s the reference of which could be found in thousands of international research papers. The method has official approvals like AACC/ No. 56-81 B, ICC No. 107/1 & ISO/DIS 3093. The Falling No. system detects sprout damage, optimize flour enzyme activity and guarantee soundness of traded grain. Alpha-amylase activity is crucial for final product quality of bread, pasta, noodles and malt. Falling Number comes along with other accessories like Shakematic, Cooling Tower, Spolett and Integrated Printer.

Manufactured by Perten Instruments, Australia. Dough Lab is a rheometer that measures the rheological properties of wheat flour doughs for bread making and other baking applications. Standard applications include water absorption, mixing profile of dough using international standard method as well as customized methods, development time, stability and softening of dough. The instrument is an alternative to Farinograph with many additional advantages. Dough lab is a totally integrated package with water addition, temperature control and computing all in one smart, compact instrument. To enhance the hardware package, instrument control and data analysis software are included, and to ensure that the results are reliable, a routine validation protocol is available. Dough lab increases the amount of data one can derive with high speed/ high energy dough mixing to emulate commercial dough mixers and variable speed mixing to research dough’s response to changing stress.

Manufactured by Perten Instruments AB, Sweden, Diode Array 7200 is an NIR instrument that performs multicomponent analysis in just 6 seconds. A wide range of food and feed products like wheat, corn, soymeal, meat and bone meal, fish, shrimp, monogastric feed, slurries, pastes, finished goods etc can be tested for moisture, protein, oil, starch, fiber, ash and many other parameters. It can also be used to analyse individual sugars, lactic acid and ethanol content during ethanol production process. Due to its unique sample presentation, it does not require any sample grinding thus minimizing errors. Diode Array being a secondary analysis instrument requires calibrations to be worked on. The instrument uses standard calibrations from Perten Instruments as well as those otherwise developed which can later be added to the existing list of calibrations in the instrument.