Research uses light to determine milk contents

February 8, 2018

The center helped fund a study in 2016 by researchers in the Department of Chemistry that used fluorescence spectroscopy to identify milk from grass-fed cows. Jacob Petrich and his team in chemistry, measured the amount of chlorophyll metabolites in milk which is greater from cows fed grass compared with those fed grain and silage. Milk from grass-fed dairy cows is of interest to consumers due in part to its high omega-3 fatty acid content. The study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.