| The first application for Near Infrared (NIR) was a quick test for grading wheat in the 1970s. The advancements in computing speed, method development and instrument spectral resolution, especially for FT instruments, have made NIR a critical technology for solving the at-line and in-line analysis problems of the food and beverage industries. Accuracy, precision, short time of analysis and limited sample preparation make NIR an ideal technology for routine analysis. It also replaces more time consuming, expensive and hazardous primary analysis that are typically run on food and beverage products. A wide range of sample types can be analyzed including coarse solids, powders, pellets, gels, pastes, slurries, opaque and clear liquids. Spectral data in the NIR region can be acquired by diffuse reflection, transflectance or transmission of the light on the sample. Liquids —NIR has been shown to be an effective tool for measuring key parameters in alcoholic beverages, liquid sweeteners, edible oils, fruit juices, coffee, tea, soft drinks, and nutritional formulas. Liquids can be measured more quickly by NIR than by primary method for moisture, protein, fat, free fatty acids, ethanol, density, solids, organic acids, carbohydrate profile and other important constituents. The sample preparation step is eliminated and results produced within a minute. Dairy —NIR can be used for analysis of many different dairy products such as milk, butter, casein, cheese, cream cheese, yogurt, baby formula, dried milk and whey powders. Fat, Moisture, Protein, Lactose, casein, total solids and other important constituents can be measured quickly and accurately. One application that has been studied and has shown great success is fat and dry matter analysis of cheese for process control. Baking Products—NIR is widely used in the baking industry to generate key quality results for protein, moisture, oil, particle size, ash, color, starch damage and water absorption. NIR has been employed to analyze ingredients, process and final product samples. Some examples of samples that can be analyzed are flour, bread, biscuit, cake mixes, breakfast cereals, pasta, snack foods, dough, additives and nutrient premixes. | Design of ExperimentInstrument: Antaris II with Integrating Sphere
Technique: Diffuse Reflection on dairy products
Rationale: The ability of FT-NIR to quickly analyze dairy products for key quality parameters such as fat, moisture and protein allows for process control. Being able to control the process of making cheese for example can reduce waste of raw materials and guarantee quality of the final product. The use of the integrating sphere to make diffuse reflection measurements allows for bulk materials such as chunks of cheese to be studied without any sample preparation.
Samples: Samples such as chunks of cheese were placed directly on the integrating sphere window. Samples that contain smaller pieces, free liquid or are creamy like butter, cottage cheese, yogurt and cream cheese were run using a sample cup spinner. The sample cup spinner allows for collection of an average spectra over a large part of the sample helping average out inhomogeneity in the sample. A set of 100 samples were collected over several production days, scanned on the FT-NIR and run for primary wet chemistry analysis. These samples represented a large range in component values as well as process variation. A PLS calibration model was developed for all components of interest. |
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