EXPLORING THE POSSIBILITY OF INTELLIGENT QUALITY CONTROL OF FERMENTED DAIRY PRODUCTS USING A GAS QUADRUPOLE MASS SPECTROMETER

The aim of the research was to create a hardware-software method for quality control of fermented dairy products with the ability to determine the degree of compliance with a given reference standard. A real-time mass spectrometric analysis of the gas composition of three groups of farm and industrial fermented dairy product samples was performed. Group 1 consisted of yoghurts from individual farms made of cow's and goat's milk. Group 2 consisted of samples of other fermented products from individual farms (kefir, yoghurt, sour cream). Group 3 consisted of samples of industrial yoghurts made of cow's milk. A total of nineteen samples of fermented dairy products were analysed. Analysis of sample composition was performed on a small-sized quadrupole mass spectrometer MS7-200 with direct sample introduction at atmospheric pressure. Samples were taken into specially prepared medical syringes of 20 ml capacity. The use of statistical analysis methods enables the assignment of groups of samples with similar properties and the classification of production as industrial or piece production. It has been demonstrated that mass spectrometric approaches utilizing multivariate data analysis techniques are promise as universal technologies for the examination of foodstuffs.