Microscopy-Assisted Digital Photography as an Economical Analytical Tool for Assessment of Food Particles and Their Distribution Through The use of the ImageJ Program

Abstract

Numerous technologies are available for particle analysis, such as laser diffraction, laser in-line particle size analysis, acoustic attenuation spectroscopy etc. However, in many situations, particle size analysis needs only to be conducted in single-type research, negating the purchase of high cost equipment. Microscopy assisted photography can be used followed by the analysis of the photo in ImageJ program in this case. It has been known seaweeds possess a high nutritional profile and can partially replace some ingredients such as salt. In represented method we describe an analytical tool for food particle size diameter analysis and probability distribution validated using four different seaweed separates (2360 to 355 µm mesh sizes). This method is cheap and consists of an ordinary digital camera (or cell phone camera), any microscope (or cell phone lens) or digital micrometer (forlarge particles) and open-sourced software – ImageJ. For seaweed sample separates obtained from 212 to 180 µm sieve mesh sizes, only microscopy equipped with a digital camera was employed. This method can be applied for any other industry such as biological samples, pharmaceutical etc., witha particular any range of particles distribution depending on accuracy required and camera lens resolution.