Why is the pre-extraction drying phase so important? Should all samples be treated the same during the drying process?

Yes, all samples should be dried for 3 hours at 100-105C. Incomplete drying during the pre-extraction phase is the most common cause of artificially high crude fat results. The ANKOM method is an indirect method of measuring fat content, meaning that fat content is determined based on loss of sample weight after analysis. If samples were not completely dry before extraction, the additional loss weight due to loss of residual moisture will result in artificially high fat results. Incomplete drying may be a result of incorrect use of desiccant pouches, incorrect oven temperature settings, hot or cold spots in the oven, or the oven being overloaded with other samples or glassware. We recommend regularly running moisture content (dry matter) analysis (3 hours at 100-105C) of internal check samples to ensure that drying is complete. Proper drying technique can be found in the XT operator manual, under "Sample Preparation for Crude Fat".