Quantification of soluble solids in reconstituted acai (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) pulp using near-infrared spectroscopy

Author(s)

Sandra, Koizimi Leandro ^[1] ; Luis, Trevelin Carlos ^[1] ; Cruz Jose, Pessoa Dalton ^[2] ; Carlos Luis, Cunha Junior ^[3] ; de Almeida Gustavo, Teixeira Henrique ^[3]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Fed Sao Carlos UFSCAR, Programa Posgrad Biotecnol, BR-13565905 Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[2] Empresa Brasileira Pesquisa Agr EMBRAPA, BR-13560970 Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[3] Univ Sao Paulo, Dept Anal Clin Toxicol & Bromatol, Fac Ciencias Farmaceut Ribeirao Preto, BR-14040903 Sao Paulo - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY; v. 48, n. 12, p. 2514-2520, DEC 2013.
• Web of Science Citations: 1

Abstract

Acai consumption is increasing worldwide because of the growing recognition of its nutritional and therapeutic properties. This product is classified based on its soluble solids content (SS), but the determination of SS in pulp is time consuming, tedious and not suitable for modern food processing plants. As near-infrared (NIR) systems have been implemented to measure various quality attributes of food products, the objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy to quantify the SS content of acai pulp. Partial least squares (PLS) regression models were constructed to predict the SS. An optimum PLS model required one latent variable {[}principal component (PC)1=97%] with a root-mean-square error of calibration (RMSEC) of 1.06% for the calibration data set and the root-mean-square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 1.03% for internal cross-validation. External validation using an independent data set showed good performance (RMSEP=1.33% and Rp(2)=0.82). NIR spectroscopy is a reliable method with which to determine SS in acai pulp and thereby to classify acai pulp according to established minimum quality standards. (AU)