Analytical Services

Analyze this! Or that!

From kernel to flour, Analytical Services gets inside the grain and analyzes the functional components of quality. Whether a grain sample represents a breeder's line for variety registration, a grain quality research project, the annual harvest survey or cargo quality monitoring, we provide a wide variety of analyses using advanced technology and standardized methods and procedures. Analytical Services traces its origins to 1913 and the founding of the Grain Research Laboratory. Analytical Services supports the quality assurance and market support programs of the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC).

Services and research

Analytical Services encompasses research, methods development and testing through moisture determination, protein testing, and quality component analysis. The Moisture laboratory publishes moisture conversion tables for the Model 919 moisture meter, verifies the calibration tables annually, generates new calibrations tables as needed, and monitors the performance of Model 919 meters. The Reference Protein laboratory provides protein content determinations by combustion nitrogen analysis used to calibrate CGC operational protein testing instruments, and for research and quality assurance programs. The analytical laboratory provides a full range of quality component tests-from flour ash to Zeleny sedimentation.

Technology, methods and standards

We use standardized technology and internationally recognized methods. Since 1996 we have used combustion nitrogen analysis, the emerging world standard for protein testing, as the reference protein method. The Model 919 moisture meter and conversion tables are checked against the appropriate reference air oven method with new crop samples each year. The Analytical laboratory uses methods and procedures recognized by the American Association of Cereal Chemists and the International Association for Cereal Science and Technology.

Future developments

Analytical Services is evaluating two moisture meters as a replacement for the Model 919 which has been in use since the early nineteen-fifties. We have been putting the new capacitance-type meters through extensive calibration testing and temperature correction assessment.

Experience and expertise

We are the leading Canadian authority on analytical quality testing and are recognized internationally for our methods and grain quality research.

To find out more about our staff, their research and area of expertise, read the biographies for:

Debbie Sobering, Program Manager,  Analytical Services