Eurofins launches rapid melamine test

10 December 2010 – Eurofins UK, the food test laboratory, has developed a new rapid approach for the testing of melamine contamination in chocolate, with same day results available by special request.

For those importing chocolate products, particularly from China where there has been recent identification of melamine in powdered milk as well as illness among 300,000 people in 2008 from the same issue, a sensitive rapid method for testing melamine is essential to ensure product safety and minimise delays in getting product to market.

The new method has improved on previous published methods, which often provided unreliable results due to the high fat content of chocolate. Eurofins’ new method utilises the latest chromatographic LC-MS/MS instrumentation – recently installed at the company’s Wolverhampton laboratory – meaning quicker results in fewer steps.

The new instrumentation has excellent sensitivity and the methodology has been designed to handle high fat content sample types such as milk and milk derived products such as chocolate, butter, cheese plus soya derived products.