FT-NIR analaysis for spices & raw ingredients sector - Food and Beverage - Food

Spices are aromatic plant substances used primarily for flavoring, coloring, and preserving food. Their benefits are plentiful as they add few calories to food, can contribute vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants when used in sufficient quantity, and act as a natural preservative. The industry is large and diverse with one hundred and nine varieties recognized by ISO. However, most spices are produced by small scale farmers and imported all over the world, which can make quality monitoring a difficult task. Traditional methods for monitoring parameters of interest include HPLC, GC, wet chemistry, visual analysis and in the case of adulteration, microscopic or DNA testing. These methods are labor intensive, time-consuming, can only measure one parameter at a time, and can require the use of expensive solvents and reagents. FT-NIR spectroscopic analysis is fast, requires no sample preparation, and can analyze multiple parameters with a single measurement.