As one of the primary nutrition sources for humans, milk is a major agricultural product in many countries. Fat content is an important factor to evaluate milk quality, but current characterization techniques either involve complicated procedures or require expensive instrumentation.

Young-Tae Chang, National University of Singapore, and colleagues have identified a turn-on fluorescent sensor for rapid and sensitive milk fat measurements through a hyper throughput screening from 10,000 candidates. This BODIPY dye exhibits enhanced emission with increased fat content in milk samples, as a result of disassembly of aggregates that quench fluorescence.
The researchers have incorporated the sensing material into a fiber-optic-based detection system, enabling facile and convenient quantification of fat content in samples ranging from fresh milk to skim milk (0.1 to 4.2 % fat content). They believe this new system can significantly streamline existing milk quality control process.

• Milk Quality Control: Instant and Quantitative Milk Fat Determination with a BODIPY Sensor-based Fluorescence Detector,
  Wang Xu, Jiaojiao Bai, Juanjuan Peng, Animesh Samanta, Divyanshu Arya, Young-Tae Chang,
  Chem. Commun. 2014.
  DOI: 10.1039/C4CC04670F