FOSS announces the FoodScan™ 2, a new near infrared (NIR) analyser that equips quality control managers to handle the increasingly complex and time-critical tasks involved in analysis of solid and semi-solid dairy products such as cheese, butter and fermented dairy products.
Building on the ground-breaking FoodScan, the FoodScan 2 harnesses the latest in rapid near infrared analytical technology to give a time-to-result as low as just 15 seconds. The ability to place odd-shaped samples directly in the instrument also reduces sample preparation time, for example curds can be placed directly for a quick assessment during cheese processing. An intuitive touch-screen interface makes operator training fast and simple.
More data in less time including unique colour measurement
The FoodScan 2 measurement is highly representative with sub-scans made simultaneously to ensure that a large share of the sample is measured in a short time. This reduces dependency on the sample homogenization step.
Quality controllers can also perform a colour measurement simultaneously with compositional tests. This offers a convenient and time-saving alternative to separate colour measurement equipment or subjective assessment by eye with visual charts. The new option is achieved by an innovative use of both NIR transmission and transflectance technology in the one unit.
Further time-savings are offered by the artificial neural network (ANN) calibrations. Based on a vast data pool of global data, the versatile calibration models avoid the unnecessary burden of maintaining many calibration models because significantly fewer are required than with other methods. For instance, the calibration for cheese covers both hard and semi-hard cheese, as well as soft, cream and processed cheese and parameters such as Fat, Moisture / Total Solids, Fat in dry matter, Salt and Protein.
Smart installation and reduced cost of administration of instrument units
The FoodScan 2, instrument standardization makes it faster to install new units while networking facilities save costs on routine maintenance and reporting via new remote support services such as FossAssure. For a producer currently running three FoodScan units it is estimated that moving to the new Foodscan™2 with FossAssure will realize yearly operational savings of more than 70.000 USD.
“Dairy producers are rightly concerned about the time and cost involved in running multiple analytical solutions across different sites,” said FOSS, dairy market manager, Peter Juel Christensen. “By avoiding unnecessary travel and providing better and more effective maintenance, the new FossAssure services will cut cost of ownership and boost confidence in performance and accuracy at the same time.”
FoodScan™ 2 Lab TS
Easy to leverage existing FoodScan investment
The instrument is designed for rapid installation with backwards compatibility to FoodScan. Software facilities allow calibration models to be moved onto the new FoodScan 2 platform with ease. The networking aspect allows a technician to move calibrations across multiple units and sites in one smooth action performed from the desktop. An automatic backup of all test data ensures that results are always available for traceability.
FoodScan 2 models
FoodScan 2 models include a Lab TS for laboratory operation, a Pro model for use in the production environment and Lab model with a keyboard for users not requiring the touchscreen interface.