Gravimetric Determination of Moisture and Ash in Meat and Meat Products: NMKL Interlaboratory Study

Abstract

Fourteen laboratories participated in a collaborative study of gravimetric methods for determination of moisture and ash in meat and meat products. The determination of moisture by drying without sand at 102-105C for 16-18 h and to constant weight was compared with the official NMKL method using drying with sand to constant weight. The incineration was performed at 550°C. The method was tested on 16 blind duplicate samples of fresh meat and meat products ranging in moisture content from 44.1 to 74.8 g/100 g, and in ash content from 1.0 to 5.4 g/100 g. Drying without sand for 16-18 h and to constant weight gave no significant difference. Therefore, the labor-intensive drying to constant weight is not necessary to obtain reliable results. In comparison with the official NMKL method based on drying with sand, the mean values, repeatability, and reproducibility of the drying method without sand for 16-18 h agree very well. Therefore, there is no reason to retain the more complicated and labor-intensive sand drying method. The conditions of the proposed method differ only slightly from the conditions used in the official AOAC method, 950.46 B(a). The collaborative results for the determination of both moisture and ash gave estimates for precision according to the HORRAT values