A Vapor Pressure Osmometer for Determination of Added Water in Milk
A vapor pressure osmometer requiring a 5- to 7-microliter sample to saturate a 0.64 cm filter paper disc fixed a digital readout of milliosmolality in 110 sec. A coefficient of variability of 0.70 was obtained on a raw milk sample tested 25 times when an acetone impregnated tissue was used to clean the sample chamber between tests. Two hundred individual cow milk samples from 20 herds averaged 280.0 ± 3.0 milliosmols. Milk samples containing up to 25% added water were evaluated on both the vapor pressure osmometer and a thermistor cryoscope with a resultant correlation coefficient of 0.991. A collaborative study involving eight hospital and industry laboratories was conducted. When the results of two laboratories were discarded, due to instrument maintenance problems, there were no significant differences among the laboratories in their abilities to quantitate added water in milk.