Near-infrared spectroscopy for food quality evaluation

Abstract Nowadays, food nutrition and safety are gaining increasing public attention. Rapid detection methods for hazardous substances in food are urgently needed. Near-infrared spectroscopy, a rapid and nondestructive analysis technique with good reproducibility, has been widely applied for fast detection of food compositions and quality evaluation in food products to guarantee food safety and to provide technical support in food development. This chapter mainly introduces basic principles, advantages and limitations, basic operational procedures, and recent application progress in different types of foods. Finally, a summary and outlook of near-infrared spectroscopy are discussed.