Application of portable near‐infrared spectroscopy for rapid detection and quantification of adulterants in baobab fruit pulp

Abstract

Baobab fruit pulp powder (BFPP) is susceptible to economically driven adulteration owing to its incredible nutrient density and rapidly expanding demand worldwide. In this study, a portable NIR spectroscopy (wavelength 900-1700 nm) coupled with chemometrics was used for the detection of BFPP adulteration. BFPP samples separately adulterated with rice flour (RF), wheat flour (WF), and maize flour (MF) at 0%, 1%, 3%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 40%, 50% and 60% concentrations were subjected to NIR spectroscopy. Two-class models proved to be reliable with sensitivity and specificity of above 0.98 and an error of below 0.01. Four-class models attained sensitivity and specificity of above 0.68 and an error of below 0.276. The correlation coefficient (R 2 ) and root mean square error (RMSE) of the prediction set were above 0.88 and below 6.20% respectively for PLSR models. The LODs were also below 13.79%. Therefore, NIR spectroscopy has a promising potential for rapid screening of BFPP adulterations.

Regenerative food innovation delivering foods for the future: a viewpoint on how science and technology can aid food sustainability and nutritional well‐being in the food industry

“…Namely, product formulations are increasingly less complex, with fewer additives, and manufactured with commonly known ingredients, leading to the concept of clean label products, even when it comes to using these ingredients in packaging materials to replace synthetic antimicrobial coating materials and developing functional biofilm materials (Kumar et al ., 2022; Zhang et al ., 2022; Rathod et al ., 2023). Food safety and security remain a main priority for the food industry for the next few years (Das et al ., 2023) in particular in terms of global trade and the adulteration and authenticity of products (Ramón‐Canul et al ., 2023; Yegon et al ., 2023).…”