Measurement of the Potassium Content of Different Food Samples with High Purity Germanium Detectors

Abstract

Measurements of the potassium content of samples of food, performed with High Purity Germanium detectors, are presented in this paper. The potassium content was measured by identifying the 1460 keV photons produced in the decay of the isotope 40K. Samples were selected, for which a high potassium content was expected. The measurements confirmed the expectations qualitatively, but not always quantitatively. Especially the expected dependence of the potassium content of chocolate on the listed percentage of cacao could not be confirmed.