Density-based Food Analysis Using a Smartphone

Year 2019, Volume: 15 Issue: 2, 181 - 186, 30.06.2019

Savas Tasoglu Stephanie Knowlton

https://doi.org/10.18466/cbayarfbe.496371

Abstract

Density is a crucial factor of interest in the food industry because it
can reveal valuable information about the content and quality of food products.
Traditionally, this physical property is quantified using a hydrometer or a
pyncometer. However, the accuracy of analog instruments is limited by human
error and more modern digital adaptations of such methods come with high
monetary costs. Here, we present a low-cost, portable,
and user-friendly platform for density-based analysis of liquid food samples of
very small volumes (<10 µL) via magnetic levitation. The platform is
fully compatible with an Android smartphone which collects magnified images and
conducts automated density-based metric determination using a custom-designed
Android application. Validity of the device was shown by measuring the density
of oils (indicating fat content) and ethanol solutions (indicating alcohol
content). This technique offers an accurate and low-cost alternative to current
density measurement techniques for analysis of food quality for broad use
in-home or in the food industry

Keywords

Magnetic levitation; magnetophoresis, food analysis, maglev, smartphone

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