9 replies to this topic

[ppuqa]

Hello Experts

 

 

As a snacks company the taste of our important is as important as safety of our products with that I would like to ask for your inputs.

 

Currently we are using pen type salinity meters to check our salinity levels the brand we are using is Oakton Ecotestr Salt1 from Cole Palmer, the meter is not performing very well that often time giving questionable results. With that would like to ask you for alternative testing methods and meters we can use that are applicable to snack food.

 

Thank you very much! 

[MDaleDDF]

Eh, firstly, I disagree with your first statement.    Food safety is the most important thing to me personally.   Quality is of course important as well, but let's say I ship a product that's off in quality.   I get a complaint and open a CAR, go through all that, finally get the customer happy.    Now let's say I ship something with E. Coli in it, and someone dies.     Yeah.   Quality is not equal to safety, imho.

Secondly, I'm not familiar with your analyzer, but we use a M926 chloride analyzer and it's awesome.

[ChristinaK]

I've had good experience with using the Horiba LAQUAtwin Salt-22 meters. It's more expensive than what you're currently using, but it is a pocket device that gives quick results (with a smiley face! haha). They also have meters for pH and a few other ions.

 

Also it is important to make sure your personnel are calibrating & storing the equipment properly to the OEM's recommendations. I had a lab tech who killed a brand-new salt-22 and pH meter in only a couple months because she ignored the cleaning and storage requirements (RIP my lab budget that year, haha...).

[ppuqa]

I've had good experience with using the Horiba LAQUAtwin Salt-22 meters. It's more expensive than what you're currently using, but it is a pocket device that gives quick results (with a smiley face! haha). They also have meters for pH and a few other ions.

 

Also it is important to make sure your personnel are calibrating & storing the equipment properly to the OEM's recommendations. I had a lab tech who killed a brand-new salt-22 and pH meter in only a couple months because she ignored the cleaning and storage requirements (RIP my lab budget that year, haha...).

Hi, Thanks for the recommendation. I bought one unit for our lab use. Just want to ask you what the frequency of calibration you are implementing. Because I saw a video recommending every 10 reading or daily calibration. The cost on standard solution would pile up very quick if we do that. Thanks for the help.

[MDaleDDF]

We calibrate the machine daily, that seems more than enough to me.

[ppuqa]

We calibrate the machine daily, that seems more than enough to me.

Thanks. May I also know approx how many readings do you perform in a day? This really help me.

[MDaleDDF]

20-30 on my busiest day, one per batch, unless I find issues that require additional testing of a product.

If you're doing a lot more than that maybe you would want to calibrate more, and I'm sure many factors go into it, like which machine you're using, etc.   However, I find once the machine is warm and rockin, it's good to go.   Haven't had an issue in 20 years.

 

But if you test 1000 batches per day or something, yeah, I can see that.

[MDaleDDF]

Just to clear this up too:   I CONDITION the machine often.   My machine tells me when to do this.   Conditioning and calibration are different things, just want to say that out loud.   But I do not calibrate it every time I condition it.

[G M]

Hi, Thanks for the recommendation. I bought one unit for our lab use. Just want to ask you what the frequency of calibration you are implementing. Because I saw a video recommending every 10 reading or daily calibration. The cost on standard solution would pile up very quick if we do that. Thanks for the help.

 

With a new instrument you can start out with daily, and after a few weeks or months, review how much deviation you see.  If its very low you can reduce frequency to weekly or whatever seems reasonable based on the data.

[GMO]

I'd also second using a desk top chloride analyser.  I've found them much more accurate than hand held devices.  Sample preparation is key as well.

 

Just be aware though that as it says, it's looking for chloride, not salt.  So if you're looking for salinity, you need to know there are not other significant levels of chloride in your process.  Sorry if that sounds stupid but I once had someone get very confused using a "low salt" type product which is a mixture of NaCl and KCl.