Nicolet iN5 - Identify contaminants and ensure quality

Can you identify the contaminant?

Ensuring quality and safety in foods and beverages requires continuous vigilance. It is essential to identify unexpected components to determine if they are contaminants requiring elimination or acceptable byproducts of the food production process.

The new Thermo Scientific™ Nicolet™ iN™ 5 FTIR microscope provides both visual and chemical information to help you quickly identify the unknown particulate – and keep quality product shipping.

Learn more about the Nicolet iN5 FTIR microscope
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Mysterious contaminant

Take the identification challenge

This contaminant was found in a food processing line. Take your best guess as to what this is and then hit the "reveal answer" tab below to check your skills.

Thermo Scientific Nicolet iN5 FTIR microscope

Answer revealed - It’s a fly wing.

Contaminant identified - its a fly wing

How do we know? Found on the inside of snack food bag, the spectrum of this undesirable contaminant demonstrates the concerns with the analysis of protein material. Like most proteins, the spectrum is dominated by the amide bands, seen between 1300 and 1700 cm-1. Since all proteins exhibit these bands, careful analysis is required to determine the origin of the material. In this case, the visual image is a strong clue that the material is a foreign substance.