It is possible to use other equipment to perform the defatting of samples.
As we use the equipment/methods mentioned in the assay procedure we cannot comment on the use of this equipment.
It would have to be internally validated.
However, we have used the ANKOM XT15 fat extractor which is automatic.
This method was ran along with the manual method of using petroleum ether and the results were comparable.
If the fat content of your sample is known, it is possible to check your results using the automatic method.
If the fat content of your sample is unknown, we would suggest running the automated method and also the manual method with petroleum ether so that you can compare methods ensuring the same sample percentage for fat is received.