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Food and Feed Testing >> Food Testing Services >> Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates Testing

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The Eurofins Competence Centre for Carbohydrates testing is located in Heerenveen, the Netherlands, and is an international leading laboratory in its field. Our extensive range of carbohydrate and dietary fibre tests deliver quick and accurate quality analyses for food products, as well as industrially prepared ingredients, foodstuffs, animal feed, pet food and supplements. Besides accurate testing results, outsourcing your in-house testing activities will allow you to save time and money. 

To select the test that adheres to your needs, we have divided our carbohydrate testing portfolio in the following three groups: 

Routine carbohydrate testing
Our routine carbohydrate testing portfolio includes the basic carbohydrates like monosaccharides, disaccharides, various oligosaccharides, alditols (sugar alcohols) and starches. Our routine research services provide accurate test results with reliable turnaround times. 

Dietary Fibre testing
We are experts in dietary fibre testing and make use of the newest AOAC 2009.01 and AOAC 2011.25 methods which deliver the most precise testing results regarding (high molar weight) soluble and insoluble dietary fibres and prebiotics. For a large number of different dietary fibres we offer dedicated tests. 

Special carbohydrate research
Our scientists can assist you in your dedicated carbohydrate testing and research activities. In close cooperation with you, we will assist in your complex carbohydrate research, and solve the challenges you face. Examples of how we can assist you include the determination and degree of polymerisation of specific carbohydrates like hydrocolloids and prebiotics. 

For further information and our testing portfolios please have a look at the test group page that suits your interests and needs. For questions or inquiries, feel free to contact us via the contact button. 

Eurofins Carbohydrates Testing Key Benefits

  • Highly qualified team and state of the art testing methods 
  • Accurate testing results with reliable turnaround times
  • Extensive portfolio with numerous carbohydrate and dietary fibre analyses
  • Validations and new testing methods on your request
  • Research support to assist your with carbohydrate related product development
  • Co-operation with certification bodies, food industry and technical associations

What are Carbohydrates?

From a chemical viewpoint, a carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula Cm(H2O)n. This means it consists out of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. The term carbohydrate is most common in biochemistry, where it is a synonym of saccharide (meaning ‘sugar’ in Greek). Carbohydrates are divided into four chemical groupings: monosaccharides, disaccharides, oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides. 

Mono- and disaccharides are commonly referred to as sugars and have low molecular weights. Examples are glucose, fructose (mono), sucrose and lactose (di). Oligosaccharides typically consist out of two to ten monosaccharides. Oligosaccharides, specifically Prebiotics, can have positive health effects when consumed, as they stimulate or suppress various bacterial groups in our intestines. Polysaccharides are carbohydrate polymers and can be separated into homo- and heteropolysaccharides. Starch, cellulose, glycogen and beta-glucan are examples of homopolysaccharides, meaning that they are carbohydrates that are built up out of one type of monosaccharide. Hetero-polysaccharides consist of different types of monosaccharides and can all be classified as dietary fibres. Examples are hemicellulose, pectin, pentosan, guar gum and carrageenan. 

Carbohydrates are very important components in food and feed. and have numerous functions; energy sources, sweeteners,as a creator of physical properties (like texture and viscosity) and as dietary fibre. This has led to a necessity for accurate high quality analyses of the carbohydrate composition and content in food and feed, including raw materials.

 

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