Comparative studies on the souring process of milk by means of enzymatic and electrochemical sensors

Abstract

In recent years, the demand for quick and specific analytical tools for food analysis has increased and is still expanding. Both the industry and government health agencies require a variety of different ana-lytical methods in the quality assurance of food materials. Analysis is needed for monitoring nutritional parameters, food additives, food contaminants, microbial counts, shelf life assessment and other olfac-tory characteristics like smell and odour. Enzymatic and electrochemical sensors are of great impor-tance in food analytics. Especially in dairy farming they are widely used for the quality control of prod-ucts as well as for monitoring and optimising of production processes, whereby as most interesting pa-rameters the pH value, the chloride and lactate concentrations and the conductivity are determined. Furthermore, electrochemical measuring procedures can be helpful for the health care of animals. Thus, e.g. pathogens in the cow's udder can be detected in a simple procedure by conductivity meas-urement. The aim of the paper presented here is to give a short survey on possibilities of application of biosensors and electrochemical sensors and measuring methods in dairy farming.