Tag: Enzymatic assay

The concentration of sugar in a liquid, often expressed in degrees Brix, is a crucial metric in industries from food and beverage production to winemaking. Modern and historical methods range from simple specific gravity measurements to complex chromatography, each offering varying levels of accuracy, speed, and specificity.

With the average American consuming more than 17 teaspoons of added sugar daily, knowing how is sugar content measured in food is vital. A variety of analytical methods are employed to determine sugar concentration, ranging from rapid field testing for fruit ripeness to precise laboratory techniques for nutritional labeling.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a diet with less than 10% of total daily calories from free sugars is recommended. Determining a food's sugar content is a common necessity for everything from product labeling and quality control to personal diet monitoring, and there are multiple methods available depending on your needs.

The worldwide production of sugar exceeded 185 million tonnes in 2017, highlighting the crucial need for accurate methods of sucrose determination in the food industry and beyond. A range of analytical techniques exists, from simple physical measurements to highly specific and sensitive enzymatic assays, each suited for particular applications and sample types.

Globally, starch is the most common carbohydrate in human diets, found in staple foods like wheat, potatoes, and rice. Understanding how do you determine the content of starch in food is crucial for nutritional analysis, food manufacturing, and research, with methods ranging from simple visual indicators to complex laboratory procedures.

According to the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), resistant starch (RS) satisfies the official definition of dietary fiber. Accurately measuring the resistant starch content in food samples is a critical step in nutritional analysis, food development, and quality control, relying on robust enzymatic and chemical methods.

According to a study published by the National Institutes of Health, a fructose dehydrogenase-based enzymatic assay proved to be highly specific for detecting fructose in serum with minimal cross-reactivity from other sugars. This highlights the need for precise techniques when you want to measure fructose in various matrices, from biological samples to processed foods.