If you could test levels of minerals in bone broth...

[Rasa]

I'm giving serious thought to finding a lab to test the mineral levels in my various bone broth preparations...I'm just dying of curiosity! Of course, I will just keep wondering if this is prohibitively expensive, I'm just exploring right now.

I know there are SO many variables here and I would try to control as best I could (weight of bones, weight of various veggies, volumes produced, etc.)

If you have ever wondered about the mineral content of your bone broth, help me brainstorm what to consider...

The different forms of bone broth I'd like to test (pasture-raised chicken bones, for now):

1. Soup broth (raw chicken in cold water, brought to boil, some meat removed after an hour, rest of chicken simmered with veggie scraps for several hours--I can get this type of broth to gel usually, by the way).
2. Pressure cooked bone broth (using left-over bones from roast chicken and veggie scraps).
3. Long simmered bone broth (using left-over bones from roast chicken and veggie scraps)-1 day
4. Long simmered bone broth (using left-over bones from roast chicken and veggie scraps)-2 days.
5. Second pressure-cooking of already pressure-cooked bones (this would be my least interest).
6. ??

I'd be interested in...?...Calcium, Magnesium, ???

[buckeye_bebe]

Well poop I just lost my whole analytical chemistry post. If I were to analyze your sample, I'd use USP24 (us pharmacopeia), NF19 (national formulary) and the FCC (food chemical codex). Mineral content of chicken bone depends on species and feed. Iron, sulfur, heavy metals, and alkali metals are other minerals I would test for, and phosphorous as phosphates. Junk like arsenic and strontium above background levels would be warranted depending on the feed and origin.

[AnoriensMom]

I was just signing on here to post a question about the macronutrient content of chicken stock!
Do you happen to know the estimated amounts of protein carbs fat etc?

I just started using fitday.com and of course there is nothing listed for homemade chicken stock.

[moon mountain mama]

I was going to post a question wondering what the best way nutritionally is to cook bone broth? haha! This info. sure would be helpful.

[JMJ]

If you do test, you have to come back here and tell us the results. I've been wondering this a lot lately too. I would test the recipes in Nourishing Traditions as a good baseline for everybody, but you'd probably find it more useful to do ones that you normally do.

[Rasa]

I honestly don't even know where to start--thank you buckeye_bebe for the test suggestions. A google search turned up www.anresco.com in California which offers those tests...anyone know any other places (or have you heard of this lab buckeye_bebe?)

[Rasa]

Gag-Gasp-Choke! I just looked at a pricing schedule...I'm not sure what I was thinking--what a pipe dream! I'll keep thinking about this and see if I can figure out how to do this appropriately.

[NoTiGG]

I don't mean to get off topic but how come the broth they sell in the store.. even the organic natural ones.. don't seem to contain any gelatin? they don't gel at all

[Rasa]

My SIL once joked that the just wave the chicken over the pot

[outlier]

Do you have a university nearby with research programs? I'm sure a university with chemistry labs would have the equipment to test it. Whether or not you could find someone (likely a grad student) who would run the tests for you would be another story, but if you offered to pay any costs incurred by the tests, you might have a shot. This is the cheapest way I can think of to do this. You might have better luck if you "knew someone who knew someone" who could help since university labs don't have anything to gain except liability when it comes to unofficially running tests for the public.

I'd love to know the answers as well! Would someone at the WAPF be willing to help? I'm sure this knowledge would be good for them to have.

[JMJ]

I have heard of universities doing something like this. One of my high school teachers went to Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, and he said that people could just drop off any sample of anything, and the chem lab would run certain tests on it. All the hippies would drop off samples of their drugs to make sure that they weren't laced with anything deadly.... but that was the '60s.

I was also wondering if there's anything at all like bone broths on the market where you could just go look at a nutrition label. I did find this, though to help shed some light on the subject.

one mama used a fish tank testing kit to measure calcium in her 24 hour chicken bone broth. it turned out to have 300 mg/L of calcium

Anybody know where to get a fish tank testing kit?

[Rasa]

I'm only half joking but I wonder if any of those science-lab-kits they sell to kids would have any meaningful tests?!

I do have a hospital-based university near me so I'll have to see what kind of info I can gather from them. The funny thing is I used to work for them but I was in the biological 'side', not the chemistry 'side' and there was essentially no overlap, so I feel as clueless as if I had no knowledge!!

[Theloose]

I've been eyeing the tests at http://www.covance.com/ for a while now - the last I checked, I was looking at “Mineral Profile ICP” which includes calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc and was $124/test with a discount for multiple samples. I was thinking about putting together a fundraising page to try and do a bunch of samples. My best guess using a calcium test for aquariums (bought at our local 'fish store') was about 400mg Ca/cup, using beef bones and 2 hours in the pressure cooker.

[JMJ]

Originally Posted by whoMe

I've been eyeing the tests at http://www.covance.com/ for a while now - the last I checked, I was looking at “Mineral Profile ICP” which includes calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc and was $124/test with a discount for multiple samples. I was thinking about putting together a fundraising page to try and do a bunch of samples. My best guess using a calcium test for aquariums (bought at our local 'fish store') was about 400mg Ca/cup, using beef bones and 2 hours in the pressure cooker.

Thanks so much for sharing this information. I keep meaning to come back and ask this question but keep not having time. Could you give more details on your pressure cooker broth recipe? About how much bones and how much water do you put in? Do you add other vegetables? Do you know how what you get from your pressure cooker compares with stovetop or slow cooker recipes? TIA.

[Theloose]

Originally Posted by JMJ

Thanks so much for sharing this information. I keep meaning to come back and ask this question but keep not having time. Could you give more details on your pressure cooker broth recipe? About how much bones and how much water do you put in? Do you add other vegetables? Do you know how what you get from your pressure cooker compares with stovetop or slow cooker recipes? TIA.

I think it was about 3 pounds of bones from US Wellness (2" marrow bone sections with no cartilage and minimal meat) to a half a pot of water in this 8 qt pressure cooker, cooked for 2-ish hours. No frills, just bones from the freezer, into the pot with just water, and cook.

[CellarDoor]

Someone on a yahoo group I'm on had her chicken broth analyzed by a lab. To summarize:

-Tests were done in Europe using an aquarium kit and also two separate professional labs. All three samples were prepared in a similar way, but using different (pastured) chickens. Broth was made from all the bones of one chicken (approx 200 g in wt.) cut up, covered with 2 liters of water and 2 T. ACV. Low simmer for 24 hours.

Aquarium kit: 100mg of Ca/150mg Mg per liter
Industrial lab: 100mg of Ca per liter
Food Safety lab: 150mg of Ca per liter

Pretty low numbers compared to cow milk (about 1200 mg of Ca per liter).

HTH!

[Pookietooth]

You could call the EPA. MY dh used to work for an EPA lab (as a contractor), and they tested for metals among other things. They had an ICP machine.

[WuWei]

What about a swimming pool test kit? I'm checking with my friend to see what minerals they test for and will sample our broth.


Pat

[mom61508]

Can't wait for results pat!

[WuWei]

Originally Posted by mom61508

Can't wait for results pat!

Unfortunately, their pool tests only for ph. I'll check at the local salt water aquarium store, maybe they'll have something. Online, it appears that they can test ppm of calcium, magnesium and phosphate (zinc, copper, sulfate, nitrate).


Pat