Molecular Spectroscopy Compendium - Ensure food quality, production, and safety

Molecular Spectroscopy for Food Quality and Safety

Significance of Topic

Molecular spectroscopy techniques such as FTIR, UV-Vis and fluorescence play an increasingly important role in ensuring food quality, safety and authenticity. They enable rapid, sensitive, non-destructive analysis from farm to fork, supporting incoming inspection, process control, and final product verification. Fast, on-site measurements reduce downtime, minimize waste, and help meet stringent regulatory and consumer demands.

Objectives and Overview

This compendium presents a collection of application notes demonstrating how Agilent’s portable and benchtop molecular spectroscopy instruments can identify target and non-target compounds in diverse food matrices. Case studies cover authentication of edible bird nests, quality screening of tomato cultivars, QA/QC of dairy powders, flours, sugars and tea, detection of milk adulterants, pesticide identification, acrylamide quantification in chips, and antioxidant capacity assays.

Methodologies and Instrumentation

• FTIR sampling modes: handheld ATR, portable ATR, DialPath transmission and ATR microscopy
• Instruments: Agilent 4100 ExoScan, 4200 FlexScan, 4500, 5500 FTIR, Cary 630, 610/660 ATR-FTIR
• UV-Vis and fluorescence: Cary 60 UV-Vis, Cary Eclipse fluorescence with ORAC assay
• Chemometric tools: PLS regression, spectral library matching, on-board pass/fail methods

Main Results and Discussion

Application examples demonstrate rapid discrimination of pure vs. adulterated samples, quantitation of sugars, proteins, acids and contaminants at low concentration, and high-fidelity screening against spectral libraries. Handheld and benchtop platforms provided comparable accuracy to laboratory methods while reducing sample preparation and analysis time.

Benefits and Practical Applications

• Immediate, on-site screening for adulteration, contamination, or mislabeling
• Streamlined QA/QC in receiving docks, mobile labs, or processing sites
• Method transferability between lab and field with consistent optics and software

Future Trends and Possibilities

Ongoing developments in miniaturization, machine learning–assisted spectral interpretation, and expansion of spectral libraries will further enhance real-time decision making. Integration with automated sampling and digital traceability supports Industry 4.0 goals in food production.

Conclusion

Agilent’s molecular spectroscopy solutions offer robust, versatile and user-friendly platforms for rapid analysis of food matrices. By combining multiple sampling interfaces, powerful chemometrics, and portable or benchtop form factors, these techniques deliver precise, actionable results to safeguard quality, safety and authenticity throughout the food supply chain.

References

1. Cao G. & Prior R.L. Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity Assay.
2. Santana P.M. et al. FTIR for Milk Adulteration Analysis. J. Agric. Food Chem.
3. Ayvaz H. & Rodriguez-Saona L. Portable Spectroscopy for Acrylamide. J. Agric. Food Chem.