Near Infrared Spectroscopy - Articles and news items

Application of non-destructive techniques for the monitoring of red wine fermentation

Latest issue / 4 January 2012 / Susanna Buratti and Gabriella Giovanelli, Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Milan

The rapid pace of change in the wine industry calls for fast methods providing real time information in order to assure the quality of the final product. NIR and MIR spectroscopy combined with sensory-instrumental methods (electronic nose and electronic tongue) can provide an ideal solution to monitor molecular and sensory changes in wine during alcoholic fermentation. The objective of this work was to investigate the potential of NIR and MIR spectroscopy, electronic nose and electronic tongue associated with chemometric data analysis to monitor time-related changes that occur during red wine fermentation. Micro-fermentation trials were conducted during the 2008 and 2009 vintages in Valtellina viticultural area (Northern Italy). During fermentation, at each sampling time, spectra were collected by FT-NIR and FT-IR spectrometers and samples were analysed by electronic nose and electronic tongue. Chemical analyses were performed to evaluate sugar, phenolic compounds, ethanol and glycerol concentrations. Various multivariate statistical methods were applied in order to obtain regression and classification models.

One of the most promising directions for the development of new methods is the application of sensor systems, whose speed and on-line capabilities meet the demand of automation and continuous process control. Electronic nose and electronic tongue are technological attempts to mimic human senses. Both devices consist of chemical sensor arrays, coupled with an appropriate pattern recognition system able to produce a fingerprint of the product. (more…)

Monitoring the shelf life of minced beef meat using NIR and MIR spectroscopy

Issue 1 2011 / 3 March 2011 / Nicoletta Sinelli and Ernestina Casiraghi, DiSTAM, Department of Food Science and Technology, Università degli Studi di Milano

The meat processing industry has shown an increasing demand for fast and reliable methods to determine product quality characteristics during the last few decades. Traditional quality analyses based on chemistry and microbiology have several drawbacks, the most significant of which are low speed, use of chemical products, high manual dexterity, destruction of the sample and the physical distance between the process and the analytical instrument. Several fast and non destructive instrumental methods have been proposed. Infrared spectroscopy has proven to be an interesting and good analytical method for at-line, on-line and in-line analyses for a variety of meat products and quality parameters. (more…)

Ice fraction assessment by near infrared spectroscopy

Issue 4 2010 / 26 August 2010 / Astrid Stevik, Research Scientist, SINTEF

The discussion of the energy crisis for a steadily growing population is often limited to scarce amounts of electric power based on more or less environmentally friendly energy sources. However, lack of food, and in particular fresh food, is also part of the current energy crisis. Fresh food is one of the most valuable sources of energy and broad research and technology development is constantly ongoing to protect and utilise fresh food for human consumption in an energy efficient way.

The challenge for the food industry is consequently to conserve and utilise fresh food to give a high quality product, defeating the barriers of costs and varying storage/transport conditions. During the past decade, superchilling of fresh food has come up as an alternative and supplement to traditional conservation methods like freezing and chilling, and the R&D results for superchilling technology are promising.
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