We offers stable isotope ratio testing for various elements, supporting environmental and forensic studies. This group of advanced analytical techniques reveals insights into physical, chemical, and biological processes that samples have undergone. Applications range from identifying sources of environmental contamination to investigating food adulteration and studying ecological food webs. These analyses rely on specialized, high-precision mass spectrometers capable of detecting small variations in natural isotopic abundances.
Turnaround time: same day – 1 day
Stable isotope ratio analysis plays a critical role in food authentication by verifying that food products are genuine. This technique can detect adulteration or mislabeling in products like wine, honey, olive oil, juices, meat, and dairy. Examples include:
● Carbon Isotopes: Detecting honey diluted with high-fructose corn syrup.
● Nitrogen Isotopes: Differentiating between conventional and organically grown crops.
● Oxygen and Strontium Isotopes: Tracing the geographical origin of foods or beverages, such as wine.
Food fraud, or the intentional misrepresentation of food products for economic gain, can therefore be investigated using stable isotopes.
Isotope ratio analysis can also be used to identify the source of a wide range of substances, including environmental contaminants like heavy metals or pesticides. Comparison of the isotopic signatures or “fingerprints” of potential pollutant sources to those present at a contaminated site may help with source apportionment, or the identification of the relative contribution of various contaminant sources. When all sources or “end members” in a given environment are known and well characterized, the degree of mixing among them can be reconstructed using stable isotope data.
Stable metal isotope measurements are typically performed through thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) or multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICPMS). While a TIMS instrument can produce excellent precision as it is not reliant on a plasma source, the MC-ICP-MS instruments at Brooks Applied Labs offer the flexibility, speed, and precision necessary for commercial testing.
Our results include all appropriate QA/QC which are not usually available from academic institutions. Brooks Applied Labs utilizes both a Nu 1700 Multi Collector ICPMS and a Nu HR Multi Collector ICPMS to achieve high accuracy and high precision isotopic measurements
Brooks Applied Lab also offers high-precision analysis of samples for light stable isotopes, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen. Our lab houses multiple Gas-Source Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometers with many peripherals.
Our advanced techniques allow us to distinguish carbohydrates that originated from C3 plants such as maple trees and beats from C4 plants such as corn and sugar cane with unparalleled accuracy. Synthetic nitrogen fertilizers are distinct from organic nitrogen fertilizers, and our analysis can confidently distinguish between these nitrogen sources used to grow crops. These are only some of the applications for which stable isotope analyses can be useful.
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