Sorghum Grains Grading for Food, Feed, and Fuel Using NIR Spectroscopy

Abstract

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) is a non-destructive, fast, and low-cost method to measure the grain quality of different cereals. However, the feasibility for determining the critical biochemicals, related to the classifications for food, feed, and fuel products are not adequately investigated. Fourier-transform (FT) NIR was applied in this study to determine the eight biochemicals in four types of sorghum samples: hulled grain flours, hull-less grain flours, whole grains, and grain flours. A total of 20 hybrids of sorghum grains were selected from the two locations in China. Followed by FT-NIR spectral and wet-chemically measured biochemical data, partial least squares regression (PLSR) was used to construct the prediction models. The results showed that sorghum grain morphology and sample format affected the prediction of biochemicals. Using NIR data of grain flours generally improved the prediction compared with the use of NIR data of whole grains. In addition, using the spectra of whole grains enabled comparable predictions, which are recommended when a non-destructive and rapid analysis is required. Compared with the hulled grain flours, hull-less grain flours allowed for improved predictions for tannin, cellulose, and hemicellulose using NIR data. This study aimed to provide a reference for the evaluation of sorghum grain biochemicals for food, feed, and fuel without destruction and complex chemical analysis.

NIR Instruments and Prediction Methods for Rapid Access to Grain Protein Content in Multiple Cereals

“…The protein content in these cereals is one of the key parameters determining nutritional grain values in human diets and its suitability for food industries [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 25 ]. Currently, NIRS-based methods are used for the rapid prediction of organic grain components [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 89 , 90 , 92 , 93 , 94 ]. However, there are not many examples for minor cereal grains (such as millets in the presented study [ 89 , 90 , 123 ]).…”

“…In the case of the cereal-based food and feed industry [ 25 , 42 , 43 ], benchtop NIRS systems with calibrations based on single-cereal species are routinely utilized—rice [ 26 , 28 , 30 , 32 , 36 , 40 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ], sorghum [ 43 , 49 , 50 ], wheat [ 27 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ], corn [ 31 , 53 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 ], and barley [ 53 , 61 , 62 , 63 ]. These typically use a large number of single-species samples from different environments representing a relevant range of target trait variability [ 3 , 52 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 ].…”

Implications of husking process on the nutritional composition of sorghum grains: diverse varieties and regions

“…The results suggest that the protein content in husked grain could meet dietary protein needs depending on sex and age (Poutanen et al, 2022); they discussed and examined how plant protein sources optimise human health. Furthermore, flour is categorised based on the milling process and protein levels (Ejaz et al, 2021), which can be evidenced by the sufficiency of the HFTU procedure in enhancing sorghum grain protein, as shown by protein content belonging to the respective varieties (Table A4).…”

Spectraformer: deep learning model for grain spectral qualitative analysis based on transformer structure

“…1 Sorghum, versatile in food and biofuel production, necessitates accurate variety identication, particularly in livestock farming. 2 Existing grain classication methods exhibit certain drawbacks. Firstly, many grain varieties bear an uncanny resemblance, confounding visual differentiation and thus fostering ambiguity and classication errors.…”

“…Sorghum, versatile in food and biofuel production, necessitates accurate variety identification, particularly in livestock farming. 2 …”