Miniaturized open-source 2LabsToGo screening of lactose-free dairy products and saccharide-containing foods

The open-source 2LabsToGo system is the only one in its nature. It combines in one miniaturized instru-ment all relevant steps normally performed in a chemical and biological laboratory. For the first time, the applicability of the 2LabsToGo system was studied for screening 17 food products. As examples, sac-charides were analyzed in eight products of different matrix complexity, and the absence of lactose was studied in nine lactose-free dairy products. Derivatization including homogeneous reagent application and plate heating via the 2LabsToGo system was explored for saccharide detection, and its performance was investigated. The visual detection sensitivity of lactose was comparable to previous studies. The precision of lactose in milk matrix (%RSD 4.6%) as well as the coefficient of determination of the calibration func-tion (0.9995) were highly satisfying. The obtained lactose content of milk (4.5%) was plausible. Screening eight saccharide-containing food samples showed the saccharides in agreement with the expectations for the respective food product. The lactose content of nine different lactose-free dairy products was proven to be below the 0.1% lactose limit value. As proof-of-principle and for verification, these screening results obtained with the miniaturized 2LabsToGo system were reproduced using conventional state-of-the-art instrumentation, which led to the same results. However, instrumental costs were comparably low for the 2LabsToGo system. The application of the new 2LabsToGo system was successfully shown for saccha-ride screening, which is attractive to the field of quality control or official food control.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The open-source 2LabsToGo system is a unique system that combines all relevant steps in a chemical and biological laboratory in a miniaturized instrument. Its applicability was studied for screening 17 food products, with focus on saccharide analysis in eight different products and lactose absence in nine lactose-free dairy products.