Powdered infant formula (PIF) is a worldwide, industrially produced, human milk substitute. Manufacture of PIF faces strict quality controls in order to ensure that the product meets all compositional requirements. Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is a rapid, non-destructive and well-qualified technique for food quality assessments. The use of fibre-optic NIR sensors allows measuring in-line and at real-time, and can record spectra from different stages of the process. The non-contact character of fibre-optic sensors can be enhanced by fitting collimators, which allow operation at various distances. The system, based on a Fabry-Perot interferometer, records four spectra concurrently, rather than consecutively as in the "quasi-simultaneous" multipoint NIR systems. In the present study, a novel multipoint NIR spectroscopy system equipped with four fibre-optic probes with collimators was assessed to determine carbohydrate and protein contents of PIF samples under static and motion conditions (0.02, 0.15 and 0.30m/s) to simulate possible industrial scenarios. Best results were obtained under static conditions providing a R(2) of calibration of 0.95 and RMSEP values of 1.89%. Yet, considerably low values of RMSEP, for instance 2.70% at 0.15m/s, were provided with the in-motion predictions, demonstrating the system's potential for in/on-line applications at various levels of speed. The current work also evaluated the viability of using general off-line calibrations developed under static conditions for on/in-line applications subject to motion. To this end, calibrations in both modes were developed and compared. Best results were obtained with specific calibrations; however, reasonably accurate models were obtained with the general calibration. Furthermore, this work illustrated independency of the collimator-probe setup by characterizing PIF samples simultaneously recorded according to their carbohydrate content, even when measured under different conditions. Therefore, the improved multipoint NIR approach constitutes a potential in/on-line tool for quality evaluation of PIF over the manufacturing process.
Keywords: Compositional analysis; Concurrent; Fibre-Optic Collimator; In/on-line; Near-Infrared spectroscopy; Powdered Infant formula.
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