Infrared and fluorescence spectroscopic techniques for the determination of nutritional constituents in foods

Abstract

Accurate food and nutrient information is important on several levels, from improving individual health to enabling manufacturers to comply with regulations governing food production and retailing. This information is obtained by means of many analytical methodologies, which have been developed to measure most of important food nutrients. The overwhelming majority of the analytical techniques currently utilized in food nutrient study are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and relatively expensive. They usually require multistep sample treatment procedures, produce waste, and often some valuable information is lost. Therefore, there is a pressing need for robust, rapid, and nondestructive analytical techniques for analysis of nutrients in foods. The recent explosion in new infrared and fluorescent applications has accelerated the pace of research in food science and technology. An increasing interest in these analytical techniques, coupled with chemometric tools, is attributed to their characteristics as rapid, nondestructive, and precise methods. In this article, we demonstrate the potential of the infrared and fluorescence spectroscopies, along with chemometric tools, to measure and characterize nutritional components of foods such as dairy products, muscle tissue, and cereals.