iCheck CHROMA validation and method comparison (March 2012)

Wednesday, 18 April 2012 00:00

In cooperation with GAIN, HKI and the Institut National de Santé Publique (INSP) iCheck CHROMA was tested and validated for analysing vitamin A in edible oil. The experiments were carried out in Côte D’Ivoire and in Switzerland. The results of the study will be published in the International Journal of International Journal of Vitamin Nutrition Research.

Abstract: Vitamin A deficiency continues to be a global public health problem. Fortification of oil with vitamin A is considered a cost-effective, feasible strategy to prevent this problem but quality control poses a challenge to program implementation. To overcome this, we have validated a newly developed device that quantitatively measures the content of retinyl palmitate in refined palm oil, is simple to use, and yields immediate results.
Linearity of analysis ranged from 2.5 – 30 mg retinol equivalents (RE)/ kg of palm oil, with 2.5 mg RE/kg being the determination limit; inter- and intra-assay precision ranged from 1.4 – 7.1 %. Comparison with a high-performance liquid chromatography method showed high agreement between the methods (R² = 0.92; Limits of Agreement: –1.24 mg to 2.53 mg RE/kg), and further comparisons illustrate that the new device is useful in low-resource settings. This device offers a field- and user-friendly solution to quantifying the vitamin A content in refined palm oil.

Download PDF here.

iCheck as a rapid screening of cassava samples for proVitamin A (March 2012)

Wednesday, 18 April 2012 00:00

Prof. Florian Schweigert and researchers from IITA met March 29 and 30 in Nigeria to celebrate the 1 year partnership in using iCheck as a rapid screening of cassava samples for proVitamin A content. In the last year, IITA has been testing this device for its potential to help develop biofortified cassava. Together with Drs. Peter Kulakow and Elizabeth Parkes the cassava team presented a step-by-step demonstration on how iCheck CAROTENE is used in the cassava breeding program. Schweigert also witnessed the processing of cassava and the various forms of cassava products. According to Kulakow, “the iCheckTM screening method is helping by accelerating the selection of more nutritious cassava genotypes that can be further evaluated with farmers and consumers.

Innovation as a GAME CHANGER: Bioanalyt @ the GAIN business alliance (Nov 2011)

Monday, 31 October 2011 00:00

Our founder Prof. Dr. SChweigert is invited to speak at the 5th GAIN Business Alliance Forum on wednesday November 9th 2011 in Vienna. BioAnalyt will participate in the session "Innovation as a GAME CHANGER". Please find more information here: www.gainhealth.org/business-alliance.

BASF, Fortrade and BioAnalyt present iCheck in Morocco (Oct 2011)

Tuesday, 18 October 2011 00:00

BASF, Fortrade and BioAnalyt present iCheck CHROMA for the analysis of vitamin A in oil at the conference ”Investing in Nutrition for development” in Marrakech, Morocco from the 21st  to the 23d October 2011. Please find more information here: http://www.congress.smn.ma/

FFI and BioAnalyt meet the Ministry of Health in Amman (Oct 2011)

Thursday, 06 October 2011 00:00

The Flour Fortification Initiative (FFI, represented by Quentin Johnson) and BioAnalyt (represented by Simone Frey), met with Hanan Masa'd and Rawieh Barham from the Ministry of Health in Amman to discuss the "Nutrition in Jordan - Update and plan of Action" as well as the BioAnalyt QC tools.