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Food Science Instrument Room

Instruments designed and specified for the use of the Food Science classes.
Two students working in the Food Science Instrument Room
Instrument Room
This shared space between the Food Science and Applied Plant Science programs houses and maintains sophisticated instrumentation in a protected clean environment, and offers analytical support to courses (Intro to Food Science, Food Chemistry, Food Analysis, Food/Dairy Processing, Food Product Development, etc.) and student mentored research activities. 

To view more photos of the product development and other facilities click here.
LECO Nitrogen Combustion Analyzer
Measures the protein content of liquid or dry foodstuffs (3-4 minute run time), and is a recognized official method for food labeling purposes.
Agilent High Performance Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC)
The Agilent 1260 Infinity II Quaternary HPLC (with diode array, refractive index, fluorescence detectors) provides separation and quantification of individual chemical constituents (e.g., vitamin C, acrylamide, caffeine, sugars, etc.) within a complex food extract or mixture to quantify their respective amounts within a given food.
TA Instruments Differential Scanning Calorimeter (Discovery DSC25)
Detects and measures thermal transitions within food systems related to water (ice melting/crystallization,) starch (gelatinization/retrogradation), lipids (melting/crystallization), proteins (denaturation), etc.
Newport Scientific Rapid Visco Analyzer (RVA)
Generates a functional viscosity profile of starch containing materials (isolated starches; modified starches; potato flakes, granules, and products; cereal grains; flours; etc.) over the course of a defined heating/cooling regime.
Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (Thermo Fisher)
Assays the mineral analysis of foodstuffs (Na, K, Ca, etc.).
Texture Technologies Texture Analyzer (TA.XTPlus)
Provides a measure of food textural characteristics using a variety of application-specific probes and geometries (three-point bend; Warner-Bratzler knife (meat tenderness); spreadability rig; cone, cylinder and puncture probes; knife blade (noodles), etc.