Quantitative Analysis of Adulterations in Oat Flour by FT-NIR Spectroscopy, Incomplete Unbalanced Randomized Block Design, and Partial Least Squares

This paper developed a rapid and nondestructive method for quantitative analysis of a cheaper adulterant (wheat flour) in oat flour by NIR spectroscopy and chemometrics. Reflectance FT-NIR spectra in the range of 4000 to 12000 cm−1 of 300 oat flour objects adulterated with wheat flour were measured. The doping levels of wheat flour ranged from 5% to 50% (w/w). To ensure the generalization performance of the method, both the oat and the wheat flour samples were collected from different producing areas and an incomplete unbalanced randomized block (IURB) design was performed to include the significant variations that may be encountered in future samples. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was used to develop calibration models for predicting the levels of wheat flour. Different preprocessing methods including smoothing, taking second-order derivative (D2), and standard normal variate (SNV) transformation were investigated to improve the model accuracy of PLS. The root mean squared error of Monte Carlo cross-validation (RMSEMCCV) and root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEP) were 1.921 and 1.975 (%, w/w) by D2-PLS, respectively. The results indicate that NIR and chemometrics can provide a rapid method for quantitative analysis of wheat flour in oat flour.