Successful laboratory and industrial validations have been completed for glucose, sucrose, lactose, fructose and lactic acid measurements. Very promising results have been obtained for the ethanol biosensor but its shelf life has not been optimised. These biosensors have been successfully used in batch mode measurements as well as in flow injection analysis techniques.
Both laboratory participants (Eurofins Scientific and the Istituto Lattiero Caseario) concluded that the developed biosensors are more suitable for industrial applications than for use in research applications. The repeatability of the biosensor technique is good, making it ideal for following the evolution of a production process or monitoring different batches of the same product. The investment required for the installation of the biosensor instrument is clearly lower that for the enzymatic test and the HPLC methods used in the comparison. HPLC is the most expensive of the methods compared.
The assessment carried out in an industrial environment concluded that the biosensor would be a very useful tool in a quality control department in a food company. By using the biosensor to spot check products on a continuous basis, it would be beneficial for the company to monitor the variation in analytic levels in food products. In the case of yoghurt production, factors affecting the rate of which the amount of fruit added to each pot of yoghurt (e.g. instability of fruit tanks, incorrect fruit dosing etc.) could be monitored via glucose and sucrose levels in finished products. This would lead to improved process control and increased production efficiency.