CREAMATOCRIT AS A RAPID METHOD TO ESTIMATE THE CONTENTS OF TOTAL MILKLIPIDS

The Gerber test has been extensively used as an extremely accurate sta ndard method for determining the content of milk lipids. However, it i s risky to laboratory workers and hazardous to the environment due to the need for use of reagents. The research and development of alternat ive methods is of great importance especially for industrial applicati on. In this work, the Creamatocrit method is evaluated to estimate the content of milk fatty material from mammals. Capillary tubes were fil led with milk samples and centrifuged at 15 000 rpm for 5 min using an adequate micro centrifuge. The total content of lipids was determined by taking the ratio between the cream phase and the total sample leng th within the capillary tube. The results obtained show a satisfactory correlation (0.968) between the Creamatocrit and Gerber methods. Thus , we propose the use of the Creamatocrit method as an advantageous alt ernative to the Gerber method for industrial purposes. (C) 1997 Elsevi er Science Ltd.