This article explores different opportunities to evaluate quality variation in raw materials from biological origin. Assessment of raw materials attributes is an important step in a bio-based production since fluctuations in quality are a major source of process disturbance. This can be due to a variety of biological, seasonal and supply scarcity reasons. The final properties of a product are invariably linked with the initial properties of the raw material. Thus, the operational conditions of a process can be tuned to drive the product to the required specification based on the quality assessment of the raw material being processed. Process analytical technology (PAT) tools which enable this assessment in a far more informative and rapid manner than current industrial practices that rely on rule-of-thumb decisions are assessed. An example with citrus peels is used to demonstrate the conceptual and performance differences of distinct quality assessment approaches. The analysis demonstrates the advantage of characterization through multivariate data analysis coupled with a complementary spectroscopic technique, near-infrared spectroscopy. The quantitative comparative analysis of three different approaches, discriminant classification based on expert-knowledge, unsupervised classification, and spectroscopic correlation with reference physicochemical variables, is performed in the same dataset context. Current traditional bioprocessing plant manufacturing does not tackle raw material variability with enough operational flexibility, resulting in product quality variability. Unlike other process conditions, the manufacturer does not directly control raw materials. The quality is highly dependent on external vendors. Furthermore, raw materials may vary from lot to lot on a long timescale. In these cases, the measurement of critical properties of the raw material can allow for the dynamic monitoring and control. 1,2 The need to tackle the natural variability of raw materials is considered an important challenge in industrial biotech processes.An adequate approach to this problem can mitigate production performance issues and undesired deviation of the critical quality attributes of the end-product due to raw material quality fluctuation. 3-5 Identification and measurement of key raw material characteristics (physicochemical or (micro)biological properties) through conventional analytical chemistry are an immediate first step into working towards this paradigm. Statistical analysis and modeling of this data can be performed to further enhance the use of raw material in process and learn to better classify different lots of the same raw materials. 6 However, the measurement of raw material quality may be time-consuming and prohibitive for in-production monitoring and optimization applications. 7This limitation can be overcome by coupled use of advanced spectroscopic methods such as near-infrared (NIRS), UV-visible and Raman spectroscopy with chemometric techniques. This combination constitutes a process analytical technol...