Traditional Methods for Mineral Analysis

Abstract

The mineral content of water and foodstuffs is important because of their nutritional value, toxicological potential, interactive effects with processing and texture of some foods, and flavor (in the case of salt). This chapter describes the principles, procedures, and applications of traditional methods for analysis of minerals involving titrimetric and colorimetric procedures, ion selective electrodes, and benchtop analyzer to measure salt content. The traditional methods described have maintained widespread usage in the food industry despite the development of more modern instrumentation such as ion chromatography (Chap. 13), atomic absorption spectroscopy, and inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (Chap. 9). Traditional methods generally require chemicals and equipment that are routinely available in an analytical laboratory, and are within the experience of most laboratory technicians. Additionally, traditional methods often form the basis for rapid analysis kits (e.g., AquaChek® for calcium, and Quantab® for salt determination) and for automated benchtop analyzers for salt content. The principles of these test kits and automated analyzers are explained in the chapter.