Development and Validation of Proximal Chemistry Analytical Procedure in Semi-automated Equipment

The proximal chemical analysis (AQP) includes 5 fundamental tests, which are: determination of crude protein, determination of crude fiber, determination of humidity, determination of ashes and determination of fat. This last determination can be made in two different ways, which will depend on the type of sample being treated, as well as the amount of fat expected to be obtained in the food to be analyzed. For foods with low amounts of fat the hydrolysis technique is used, which is divided into 3 phases. All the methods before being taken to the daily practice in a laboratory of food analysis either internal control, verification or third authorized must be validated, in order to obtain consistent, robust and reliable results. In those cases in which the method that will be tested differs with the method that is reported in the literature, a comparison of both methods should be made in order to ensure that both are compatible and the results will be equally reliable. In the validation, the acceptance parameters will be established for each one of the tests that are carried out in it, while at the end of it the acceptance criteria for the general method will be established. The objective of this work was to carry out the development of analytical methodology that was validatable in order to reduce analysis time by using semi-automated equipment. In the case of semi-automated equipment, this comparison of methods is carried out, as it was the case of the analysis of fat with hydrolysis, which used a hydrolysis unit and the extraction equipment using samples of finished food for animal consumption. The results obtained in the validation using the traditional method correspond to a CV less than 2%, while the results obtained using semi-automated equipment correspond to a CV less than 2% for the case of fat determination with hydrolysis.