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Home / Our applications / Food beverage traceability

Food & Beverage Traceability

Silica gels are used in chromatographic separations for analytical quality control of food as well as in the manufacturing of various food ingredients. Very fine particle-size silica gels are used as filter aids and clearing agents mostly in the beverage industry.

Zeochem offers a suite of product lines to support specific industrial needs.

  • ZEOprep: Irregular silica is one of the most widely used chromatography sorbents in the world. It is available in a wide range of pore and particle sizes with modifications from small to multi-ton quantities to meet application, performance and economic requirements.
  • ZEObeads: Microbeads offer better chromatographic performance compared with irregular ZEOprep products but are still economically priced.
  • ZEOsphere: Spherical silica is for normal phase and reversed-phase applications. Available products include classical reversed phases (e.g., C18, C8, C4, etc.) and ZEOsphere DRP Mixed-Mode silica for separation and purification of charged compounds. ZEOsphere silica is available in various pore and particle sizes as well as multiple modifications.

All our products are produced at ISO-9001 certified facilities. Strict quality control from raw material to finished product guarantees optimized chromatographic performance. Each step in the production process is closely monitored to minimize product variation and to secure high lot-to-lot finished product reproducibility.


Applications

In the beer industry, porous silica gels are used as filter aids, as well as purification and clearing additives in batch applications. They can be used alone or in mixtures with other filter materials, mainly for the clearing and stabilization of beers. Large quantities of very fine particle silica gels are added to the beer to act as scavengers for proteins that cause turbidity and harm the stability of the finished product. Standard particle-size silica gels are added as efficient filter aids. We offer very fine silica gel in sufficient quantities to meet industry demands.

Porous silica gels are used as classical stationary phase in chromatography-based separations of specific cannabinoids. CBD and other cannabinoids purification can be achieved using flash chromatography (normal-phase or reversed-phase pre-purification) and by reversed-phase (main purification-polishing).

While current separation techniques help clean up raw extracts and isolate cannabinoids with high purity, purity levels desired by the industry (> 90%) are not being met. This means there is a current need for a secondary purification step to remove the undesired co-extractants and provide the desired product purity with the highest recovery.

We offer a wide range of silica for flash chromatography cartridges (ZEOprep) and HPLC (ZEOsphere).

Porous silica gels are used in industrial-size purification and separation columns for the purification and decolorization of triglycerides (i.e., from fish oils).

The separation of different forms of phospholipids requires chromatographic techniques where porous silica gels are a well-established stationary phase.

Porous silica gels are used as classical stationary phase in chromatography-based separations of specific cannabinoids. Purification of advanced CBD and other cannabinoids can be achieved using flash chromatography (normal-phase or reversed-phase pre-purification) and reversed phase (main purification).

While current separation techniques help clean up raw extracts and isolate cannabinoids with higher purity, purity levels desired by the industry (> 90%) are not being met. This means there is a need for a secondary purification step to remove the undesired co-extractants and provide the desired product purity with the highest recovery.

We offer a wide range of flash chromatography products (ZEOprep) and products for the main reversed-phase purification (ZEOprep or ZEOsphere).

Vitamins are an important component of the daily diet. Some of the many vitamins of interest include vitamin A (retinol), vitamin B1 (thiamine), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), 25-OH vitamin D3, vitamin C, vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) and vitamin K.

The separation of some isomere forms of vitamins requires chromatographic techniques and the use of unbonded or bonded silica gels.

We offer C18 modified ZEOprep (irregular silica) phases in different pore and particle sizes to meet the high purity requirements for vitamin applications.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • The larger the molecular weight of the target molecule to be separated, the larger the pore size needs to be. The sample molecules need to be able to interact with the pores of the particle to create an efficient separation mechanism. If the pores are smaller than your target molecule, it will not be retained and elutes immediately.
  • The larger the average pore size of the material, the smaller will be the effective surface area. If you have less surface area available, your separation is generally less efficient. It is important to choose the right pore size for your target molecule.
  • Size and distribution of the silica particles affect the packing efficiency of the columns and, therefore, process performance.
  • The higher the packing density, the higher the surface area, the more interaction between eluent and separation material, resulting in higher efficiency separation. However, the higher the packing density, the smaller the mean particle size is, and therefore the higher the backpressure will be.

Bonding different chemical groups onto the surface of bare silica results in functionalized silicas, which give higher selectivity towards specific molecules.

  • Bare/Silica has a high polar surface, it is the most popular stationary phase, ideal for conventional applications (normal phase separations, non-polar target molecules, pharmaceuticals, natural products)
  • C4; suited to molecules with large hydrophobic regions, peptides, proteins. Usually combined with a large pore size for big biomolecules (>1000Da)
  • PHE/phenyl; moderately nonpolar for aromatic compounds, aflatoxins, caffeine, phenols.
  • C8; highly hydrophobic pesticides, peptides, drugs
  • C18; more apolar than C8 and in reversed phase chromatography higher retention than C8. Has a non-polar surface, ideal for pharmaceuticals, steroids, fatty acids, peptides, proteins, pesticides, PCB’s
  • Amino/NH2has a medium polar surface, ideal for carbohydrates and nitrogen containing heterocycles and amines. Scavenger applications.
  • Diolhas a less polar surface (than bare silica) and still many hydroxy-groups, ideal for lipids; Our best option for many SFC applications.
  • Cyano/CN unique selectivity for polar analytes with widely different chemistry, e.g., Cyclosporine, carbohydrates
  • Thiol/SH; Mainly used for scavenging
  • SCX/SO4–:Ion Exchange for strong cation
  • SAX/TMA; Ion exchange for weak anion
  • NH2P; Ion exchange for scavenging
  • Morphology of the silica particles, meaning bead shape
  • Surface area: this is a function of particle- and pore size
  • Surface functionalisation
  • Particle size distribution in terms of range and actual distribution of particles within the range (D10/D50/D90)
  • Irregular silica beads to be used in low- to medium-pressure systems
  • Spheroidal Silica beads can be used in low to high-pressure systems
  • Spherical silica beads are primarily used for high-resolution, high-pressure systems
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  • Our Products
      • Overview
      • Molecular Sieves
      • Deuterium Labeled Compounds
      • Odor Control Zeolites
      • Chromatography Gels
  • Our Applications
      • Overview
      • Medical Oxygen Generation
      • Ethanol Dehydration
      • Biopharmaceuticals
      • Industrial Oxygen Generation
      • Refining
      • Health Science Diagnostics
      • PSA Hydrogen Purification
      • Petrochemicals
      • Analytical
      • Molecular Sieve Regeneration
      • Solvent Drying & Treating
      • Natural Products
      • Industrial Drying
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Food & Beverage