Ash Content Determination

Ash refers to the inorganic residue remaining after either ignition or complete oxidation of organic matter in a food sample. Determining the ash content of a food is part of proximate analysis for nutritional evaluation, and it is an important quality attribute for some food ingredients. Also, ashing is the first step in the preparation of a sample for specific elemental analysis. This laboratory exercise uses the dry ashing technique with a muffle furnace to determine the ash content of a variety of food products. Moisture content determination is also included so ash content data can be expressed on both a wet weight basis and a dry weight basis.