Raman microscopy and spectroscopy of microencapsulated edible oils.

加拿大农业生物技术和食品加工公司POS Bio-Sciences（POS）开发并销售了一系列微胶囊化omega-3油粉末。与液体油相比，胶囊化食用油由于其更长的保质期和易于处理而在营养品和食品工业中越来越受欢迎。然而，POS在这些产品的质量评估中遇到了一些困难，包括确定沉积在微胶囊表面的油的量，评估微胶囊中的载油量以及测量作为加工条件和老化的函数的油氧化程度。目前，还没有已知的方法来评估表面油的量，并且现有的用于确定负载和氧化的测定法是不敏感的、耗时的并且产生大量的危险化学废物。本项目的目标是利用现代分析光谱学方法拉曼显微光谱来解决这些分析化学问题。该项目是Paige的研究小组与封装油生产商POS之间的合作，Paige在光学光谱学和表面化学方面具有专业知识。支持者最终设想开发一种易于使用的光谱分析方法，使POS能够以高效、准确和廉价的方式在其制造过程中的任何一点进行微胶囊油样评估。

POS Bio-Sciences (POS), a Canadian agricultural biotechnology and food processing company, has developedand marketed a series of microencapsulated omega-3 oil powders. Encapsulated edible oils are increasinglypopular in the nutraceutical and food industry because of their improved shelf-life and ease of handling incomparison with liquid oils. However, POS has encountered some difficulties in quality assessment in theseproducts, including determining the amount of oil that deposits on the surface of the microcapsules, assessingthe amount of oil loading in the microcapsules and measuring the extent of oil oxidation as a function ofprocessing conditions and aging. At present, there is no known method for assessing quantities of surface oiland existing assays for determining loading and oxidation are insensitive, time consuming and generatesignificant amounts of hazardous chemical waste. The goal of this project is to solve these analytical chemistryproblems by using Raman microspectroscopy, a modern analytical spectroscopy method. The project is acollaboration between the research group of Paige, who has expertise in optical spectroscopy and surfacechemistry, and POS, the producer of the encapsulated oils. The proponents ultimately envision thedevelopment of an easy-to-use spectroscopic assay that will allow POS to carry out microencapsulated oilsample evaluation at any point in their manufacturing process in an efficient, accurate and inexpensive way.