Key parameters for the development of a NIR microscopic method for the quantification of processed by-products of animal origin in compound feedingstuffs

Official Feed Control Linked to the Detection of Animal Byproducts: Past, Present, and Future

In the context of the expansion of the human population, availability of food, and in extension of animal feed, is a big issue. Favoring a circular economy by the valorization of byproducts is a sustainable way to be more efficient. Animal byproducts are an interesting source of feed materials due to their richness in proteins of high nutritional value. Prevention and control efforts have allowed a gradual lifting of the feed ban regarding the use of animal byproducts. Nevertheless, the challenge remains the development of analytical methods enabling a distinction between authorized and unauthorized feed materials. This Review focuses on the historical and epidemiological context of the official control, the evaluation of current and foreseen legislation, and the available methods of analysis for the detection of constituents of animal origin in feedingstuffs. It also underlines the analytical limitations of the approach and discusses some prospects of novel methods to ensure food and feed safety.

The use of ethylene glycol solution as the running buffer for highly efficient microchip-based electrophoresis in unmodified cyclic olefin copolymer microchips

An ethylene glycol solution was used as the electrophoretic running buffer in unmodified cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) microchips to minimize the interactions between the analytes and the hydrophobic walls of the plastic microchannels, enhance the resolution of the analytes and eliminate the uncontrollable dispersion caused by uneven liquid levels and non-uniform surfaces of the separation channels. Five amino acids that were labeled with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) were used as model analytes to examine the separation efficiency. The effects of ethylene glycol concentration, pH and sodium tetraborate concentration were systematically investigated. The five FITC-labeled amino acids were effectively resolved using a COC microchip with an effective length of 2.5 cm under optimum conditions, which included using a running buffer of 20 mmol/L sodium tetraborate in ethylene glycol:water (80:20, v/v), pH 6.7. A theoretical plate number of 4.8 × 10(5)/m was obtained for aspartic acid. The system exhibited good repeatability, and the relative standard deviations (n=5) of the peak areas and migration times were no more than 3.4% and 0.7%, respectively. Furthermore, the system was successfully applied to elucidate these five amino acids in human saliva.