Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Analysis for metal ions in fruit juices
March 7, 2013
Q. I was wondering, how do you determine or analyze the metal ions found in different fruits through their fruit juices? orange, mango and apples in particular?
Amanda B [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]- Philippines
A. Hi Amanda. But why were you wondering that? Please post your situation that impels the question because then we will have some sense of what metals you want to analyze for, what interferences probably have to be considered and allowed for, what kind of equipment is reasonable (an international food distributor can spend more on instrumentation than a high schooler), etc. Thanks.
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
March 10, 2013
A. This is chem lab stuff, really.
If you want to find out if a certain metal is present in a solution you can run a series of qualitative analysis using selective precipitation, which is a fancy way of saying you mix in some other chemicals that are known to form solids in the presence of certain metal ions, and via some deduction and process of elimination, figure out what's in there.
Once you know what metals are there and if you want to know how much is in there, I think the traditional method is AAS, atomic absorption spectroscopy
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Ray Kremer
Stellar Solutions, Inc.
McHenry, Illinois
March 11, 2013
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