Dairy and vegan alternatives

Fresh milk, yoghurt and cream are often local products with seemingly little doubt about the origin. This can be deceiving as most of the raw milk is nevertheless processed in big dairies. The origin of a dairy product can be of importance, because some regions might be associated with negative news and on the other hand certain origins might add value to the product.

Isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) can assure geographic origin and authenticity of dairy products at all points of the supply chain. By determining and interpreting the stable isotope ratios of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, hydrogen and oxygen of any dairy product, the so-called isotope fingerprint (consisting of all five ratios) is established which is characteristic for the sample and can be compared to reference data from reference samples from different regions or to a database.

To achieve high geographical resolution and credible results, we use our global database, as well as our expertise and know-how to provide advanced customized origin testing by including more parameters. Any information on the samples such as suspected (not declared) origin, feeding scheme, organic/conventional etc. is helpful.

There are several milk substitution products on the markets. Claims like “100%vegan” can also be assured with isotope fingerprinting. It can be detected if certain ingredients of a product come from an animal or plant source. This may be interesting for example when distinguishing cheese from cheese imitate.

If the focus is on the detection of a (partial) substitution of the named source animal by another, identification of these species can be a supporting analytical method of choice, which cen verify for instance goat, sheep or cow milk.

Many people are not aware that sugar is practically used in almost every processed food products. Also milk and milk products e.g. yoghurt preparations can be artificially sweetened. How can one be sure, that no or only naturally derived sugar from the product itself is contained in the product? By isolating the single saccharides and determining their source material it can be detected whether they are from (added) plant sugar.

Often synthetically manufactured flavorings or supplements are far cheaper than natural ones. With isotope analysis the differences between nature derived substances vs synthetically produced ones can normally be detected easily. Imprint holds datasets for a number of flavoring and supplements in order to make a quick differentiation and verify if the flavor is natural or synthetic acc. to Directive 2000/13/EC on labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs.

If there might be an unknown factor of differentiation, for example different qualities of lots and sublots, untargeted fingerprinting of the products with one or more analytical methods of our portfolio can be applied in order to identify differences and provide useful information for further investigation of such inconsistencies. Isotope analysis plays a decisive role when it comes to traceability of batches in the areas of production, import and export. With retained samples, the identity of products can be verified independently of documents – a control sample is directly compared with an original reference sample, providing strong evidence of authenticity.

Analysis of stable isotopes can serve as an attractive method for the analytical assurance of organic products. The source animals of organic dairy products are not allowed to have certain feed and/or the feed has to correspond to the respective claim (e.g. grass-fed cows). The isotopic ratios of the bio-elements of milk are influenced by the feed of the animal and can therefore serve as an indicator of organic production.