Rigaku Miniflex
Powder X-ray Diffractometer
The Research Team
John Hughes, Gil Tansman and
Paul Kindstedt
The Instrument
Calcium lactate pentahydrate crystals in Cheddar exist in two enantiomeric forms:
D(-)/L(+) CLP
L(+) CLP
D(-) lactate L(+) lactate
Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmigiano-
Reggiano#mediaviewer/File:Parmigiano_reggiano_piece.jpg
Smooth vs. rough surface Parmigiano-Reggiano
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmigiano-
Reggiano#mediaviewer/File:Parmigiano_reggiano_piece.jpg
Size distribution of “pearls” harvested from 5 Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese samples
Diameter of pearls
Composition of “pearls” from Parmigiano-Reggiano
Cheese Matrix Pearls
% fat 32% 28%
% moisture 29.63% 20.91%
leucine 1.00%
Parmigiano-Reggiano “pearls
Rindless Parmesan surface crystals (cheese sample courtesy of Mark Johnson,
University of Wisconsin, CDR)
Gouda pearls Parmigiano-Reggiano pearls
X-ray diffraction patterns of “pearls” in Parmigiano-Reggiano
and Gouda cheeses
Washed rind/smear ripened
cheese
MineralCa P K Mg Nag/Kgofsample
78.662 33.258 4.337 2.102 9.666
StDev 0.238 0.11 0.102 0.0458 0.226