Why is micronutrient analysis often the most challenging lab step?
Answer
Due to inherent instability and lower concentrations in food matrices.
Analyzing micronutrients, particularly vitamins, presents greater difficulty in a laboratory setting compared to macronutrients or minerals. This challenge stems from two primary factors inherent to these substances: their instability, meaning they can degrade during sample preparation or testing, and their typically low concentration within the overall food matrix. Because vitamins are often present in trace amounts and are sensitive, specialized, careful, and often expensive analytical protocols must be implemented to ensure the resulting data is reliable and trustworthy.
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