DEVELOPING LOW-FIELD NMR SPECTROSCOPY FOR TACKLING FOOD FRAUD The project was supported by Innovate UK and the

first application targeted was the measurement of saturation and unsaturation in vegetable oils. A few months into the project, the horsemeat scandal broke, and the team made a timely discovery about the potential of the NMR approach for meat analysis and authentication. BENCH-TOP NMR – AN EMERGING TECHNOLOGY Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a well-respected analytical technique used in chemistry laboratories worldwide. Oxford Instruments (OI) is a British manufacturing company that designs and produces analytical tools for industry and academia; OI pioneered the super-conducting magnets employed in NMR spectroscopy and a related technique, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Shared features of these technologies are that they are large and expensive, relying on super-cooled magnets and highly trained personnel to run them. With this in mind, OI recently launched a new benchtop NMR spectrometer, Pulsar™, aimed at making NMR spectroscopy accessible for routine testing. In contrast to their high-field cousins, low-field (60MHz) ‘bench-top’ spectrometers are based on permanent magnets and ease of operation. To expand the market for bench-top NMR, key applications needed to be identified. Since 2012, OI has been working with the Institute of Food Research (IFR) to develop applications of interest to the food industry. IFR is the UK’s only publicly-funded research institute that focuses on the underlying science of food and health, addressing challenges that include food safety, security and waste. Th