Miller Magazine Issue: 144 December 2021

62 COVER STORY MILLER / december 2021 companies, but it also dramatically reduces unnecessary waste that could be mitigated through more stringent testing. COMPLETE PACKAGE In addition to the multitude of individual instruments avail- able for safety testing, there are also more powerful solutions, capable of carrying out multiple analyses simultaneously. For example, corporate and contract laboratories often utilize the high-throughput capabilities of LC/MS/MS instruments. Compared to other analytical methods, LC/MS/MS can provide higher sensitivity when detecting an incidence of contamination – be that pathogens, mycotoxins or pesti- cides. This provides stakeholders with confidence that their products will pass the varying safety threshold and guidelines across the globe. LC/MS/MS can also be used on a variety of food matrices without the need for laborious sample preparation. As such, outsourcing analytical testing to a corporate or contract laboratory can provide industry stakeholders with more confidence in their testing results. Due to the high levels of staff turnaround within the food industry, the use of LC/MS/MS instruments must be out- sourced to laboratories with staff who are trained to oper- ate them. For some stakeholders, collaborations with con- tract labs can be a great way to access these instruments. PLANT PROTEINS - CREATING THE PRODUCTS OF THE FUTURE Consumer demands and tastes are always evolving. In recent years, the snack food and baking markets have seen a rise in the demand for products created with nov- el, protein-rich ingredients such as chickpea flour and other pulse-derived ingredients. This has partially been brought about by the popularity of plant-based diets and the more environmentally conscious consumer. These novel ingredients come with their own challenges and therefore analytical needs. Large wheat millers are rap- idly adapting and expanding into this market. LC/MS/MS presents just one solution to aiding the development of these products, allowing for both safety and nutritional analyses to take place. Investing in the development of new products and getting it right the first time is invalu- able and can lead to faster, more efficient new products on the shelves for consumers. These new ingredients also present challenges when partially or fully replacing wheat due to the flour’s unique functional capabilities. The new ingredients must not only improve the nutritional profile, but they also must provide similar functionality in the final snack food or baked product. Rheological tools are proving invaluable for the formulation of such products. These instruments allowmillers and flour users to test various formulations on a small-scale reducing waste and expensive line-trials. While flour milling is one of humankind’s oldest process- es, it continues to evolve and adapt to the times. References: 1 https://www.statista.com/statistics/1094056/total-glob- al-rice-consumption/ 2 https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/encyclopedia/risk-af- latoxin-contamination-increases-hot-and-dry-growing-condi- tions