Evaluation of quality and detection of other allergenic nuts in cashew nuts using hyperspectral imaging and NIR spectroscopy combined with chemometrics

• Grant number: 25/02951-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Food Science and Technology - Food Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Douglas Fernandes Barbin
• Grantee: Roifer Pérez Vásquez
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia de Alimentos (FEA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 23/16840-0 - Integration of process analytical technologies to the cocoa processing chain, AP.R

Abstract

The quality of cashew nuts is mainly affected by the oxidation of unsaturated fats, a process that is accelerated by factors such as moisture. On the other hand, they may be subject to adulteration with other allergenic fruits mainly due to their cost or cross-contamination, which constitutes a serious risk to consumer health. To control these parameters, destructive techniques and/or equipment are generally used, which are expensive, use hazardous chemicals and demand long periods of time. This problem generates an urgent need to develop reliable analytical tools that allow quality control and detection of adulterants in real time, in a non-destructive, fast and economical way. In this work, we propose the comparison of NIR spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging to predict moisture content, rancidity and detect adulterants in cashew nuts (peanuts and Brazil nuts), combined with chemometrics. Regarding the analysis of the results, principal component analysis (PCA) will be used to evaluate the spectra obtained from the samples, and partial least squares (PLS) will be used to obtain calibration and prediction models of the attributes measured by conventional methods, as well as classification methods such as partial least squares linear discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The project is expected to identify new, reliable, simple and fast methods for quality control and fraud in cashew nuts, both for industries and regulatory agencies.