Application Note

AN 5361
Rev. 5

MilkoScan™ Mars
Milk Calibrations
The Milk application is suitable for cow,
buffalo, sheep and goat raw milk and processed
homogenised milk.
It is expected that a slope and intercept
adjustment is needed for each of the different
milk types you want to analyse, for example one
adjustment for raw milk and another for
pasteurised milk.
Fat, Protein, Lactose, TS, Solids non Fat and
Freezing Point are important quality parameters
in milk. The analysis may be used for payment,
calculation of the mass balance, for
standardisations purposes as well as to verify
the end products.

Table 1 Overview of the calibrations

Parameter Unit Minimum Maximum Number of

Samples

Fat % 0.02 10.66 1193

Protein % 2.35 6.48 1193

Solids Non Fat % 7.75 11.81 1189

Total Solids % 9.29 21.65 1193

Lactose % 2.35 5.62 1016

Freezing Point °C -0.539 0.000 128

Calibration samples have been collected from various parts of the world to build a robust
calibration with measurement values shown in the above table.

Application Note 5361 / Rev. 5 Part No. 6006 5586 1(4)

Calibration Performance
The calibration performance was evaluated using independent validation sample sets that have not
been included in the calibration. A local slope and intercept adjustment should be expected in
order to optimize the performance of the calibrations for local sample variations.
The results in the table below represent a typical example of using a calibration sample set
purchased from a commercial reference laboratory available in many countries such as Denmark,
France and USA.

Lactose
Raw milk contains lactose as the only carbohydrate and the calibration model is more correctly a
"Total Carbohydrate" and not a "true lactose" calibration. This means when a matrix of
carbohydrates is present in the milk such as in low lactose products with a combination of lactose,
glucose and galactose the calibration model is not able to distinguish only the lactose sand will
include all carbohydrates.
The conclusion is that the calibration in raw milk for lactose is based on the principle that lactose is
the only carbohydrate present. The calibration model will not predict correctly when other
carbohydrates are found in the milk. This means it is not possible to measure lactose in low lactose
products.
Table 2 Validated accuracy, repeatability, and correlation

Primary Number of Acc. Acc. Rep. Rep.

Min Max
Components samples (abs) (rel) (abs) (rel)

Fat 42 0.05 10.08 0.051 1.09 0.010 0.21

Protein 42 2.35 6.40 0.032 0.82 0.010 0.24

Solids Non Fat 41 7.75 11.94 0.059 0.61 0.018 0.18

Total Solids 41 9.29 21.04 0.072 0.50 0.024 0.17

Lactose 42 4.16 5.48 0.036 0.79 0.013 0.28

Freezing Point 14 -0.538 -0.359 0.006 - 0.002 -

The absolute accuracy, Acc.(abs), is expressed as Standard Error of Prediction (SEP). The absolute
repeatability, Rep (abs) is repeatability expressed as pooled standard deviation of replicates. The
relative accuracy, Acc. (rel) is expressed as Acc.(abs) relative to the mean of the reference values.
The relative repeatability Rep.(rel) is expressed as Rep.(abs) relative to the mean of the reference
values.
The accuracy of individual validation sample sets will depend on sample handling, the reference
method used and the range of the components found in the set. For example, the accuracy for Fat
validation will be much better if the reference method is based on Röse Gottlieb compared to a
Gerber method.
Note: The performance examples outlined in this note should be regarded
as a guideline only for the expected performance of each installation and
not considered an instrument specification.

Application Note 5361 / Rev. 5 Part No. 6006 5586 2(4)

Graphs
The Calibration performance obtained is also seen in the plots below. The reference results are
plotted against the MilkoScan Mars results and this shows the correlation between the actual and
the predicted values.
Fat validation Protein validation
12 8

7
10
6

Protein (Reference)
Fat (Reference)

8
5

6 4

3
4
2
2
1

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Fat (MilkoScan Mars) Protein (MilkoScan Mars)

SNF validation TS validation

13
24
12
22

11 20
SNF (Reference)

TS (Reference)

10 18

16
9
14
8
12
7
10

6 8
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
SNF (MilkoScan Mars) TS (MilkoScan Mars)

Lactose validation FP validation

6 -0.3

5.5
-0.35
Lactose (Reference)

FP (Reference)

5
-0.4

4.5

-0.45
4

-0.5
3.5

3 -0.55
3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 -0.55 -0.5 -0.45 -0.4 -0.35 -0.3
Lactose (MilkoScan Mars) FP (MilkoScan Mars)
Fig. 1

Application Note 5361 / Rev. 5 Part No. 6006 5586 3(4)

Reference Methods and Units
The accuracy of the calibrations are ‘Validated’ with samples analysed on the MilkoScan Mars and
by reference chemistry in accordance to the methods below.
Table 3

Parameter Unit Reference method Standards

Fat % Röse Gottlieb method IDF 1/ISO 1211

IDF 22/ISO 7208

Protein % Kjeldahl Nitrogen determination IDF 20-4/ISO 8968-4

Lactose % BOEHRINGER MANNHEIM/R-BIOPHARM, Enzymatic IDF 214/ISO 26462

BioAnalysis/Food Analysis: UV- method for the IDF 198
determination of Lactose (via Glucose) in foodstuffs
and other materials

Total Solids % Heating Oven method IDF 21/ISO

Solids-non-Fat % Calculated result, Total Solids - Fat

FPD m°C Cryoscope ISO 5764:2009

Dedicated Analytical Solutions

FOSS Analytical A/S Tel +45 7010 3370 FOSS Analytical Co., Ltd. Tel +86 512 6292 0100
Foss Allé 1 Fax +45 7010 3371 6 Louyang Road, Building 1 Fax +86 512 6280 5630
DK-3400 Hillerød E-mail info@foss.dk 215121, SIP, Suzhou E-mail info@foss.dk
Denmark Web www.foss.dk P.R. China Web www.foss.dk

Application Note 5361 / Rev. 5 Part No. 6006 5586 4(4)