Detection of volatile organic compounds in adulterated tea using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry

Chongshan Yang; Dandan Duan; Chunwang Dong; Chuanxia Li; Guanglin Li; Yunhai Zhou; Yifan Gu; Yachao Liu; Chunjiang Zhao; Daming Dong

doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.136308

Detection of volatile organic compounds in adulterated tea using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry

Food Chem. 2023 Oct 15:423:136308. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.136308. Epub 2023 May 4.

Authors

Chongshan Yang¹, Dandan Duan², Chunwang Dong³, Chuanxia Li², Guanglin Li⁴, Yunhai Zhou², Yifan Gu², Yachao Liu², Chunjiang Zhao⁵, Daming Dong⁶

Affiliations

¹ College of Engineering and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China; National Research Center of Intelligent Equipment for Agriculture, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China.
² National Research Center of Intelligent Equipment for Agriculture, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China.
³ Tea Research Institute of Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan 250000, China.
⁴ College of Engineering and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
⁵ College of Engineering and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China; National Research Center of Intelligent Equipment for Agriculture, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China. Electronic address: zhaocj@nercita.org.cn.
⁶ National Research Center of Intelligent Equipment for Agriculture, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China. Electronic address: damingdong@hotmail.com.

PMID: 37182490
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.136308

Abstract

Aroma is a key factor used to evaluate tea quality. Illegal traders usually add essence to expired or substandard tea to improve its aroma so as to gain more profit. Traditional physical and chemical testing methods are time-consuming and costly. Furthermore, rapid detection techniques, such as near-infrared spectroscopy and machine vision, can only be used to detect adulterated powdered solid essences in tea. In this study, proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were employed to detect volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in samples, and rapid detection of different tea adulterated liquid essence was achieved. The prediction accuracies of PTR-MS and FTIR reached over 0.941 and 0.957, respectively, and the minimum detection limits were lower than the actual used values in both. In this study, the different application scenarios of the two technologies are discussed based on their performance characteristics.

Keywords: Aroma; Essence; Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; Proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry; Tea.

MeSH terms

Mass Spectrometry / methods
Protons
Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
Tea / chemistry
Volatile Organic Compounds* / analysis

Substances

Volatile Organic Compounds
Protons
Tea