Detecting Low Concentrations of Nitrogen-Based Adulterants in Whey Protein Powder Using Benchtop and Handheld NIR Spectrometers and the Feasibility of Scanning through Plastic Bag.

Nitrogen-rich adulterants in protein powders present sensitivity challenges to conventional combustion methods of protein determination which can be overcome by near Infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). NIRS is a rapid analytical method with high sensitivity and non-invasive advantages. This study developed robust models using benchtop and handheld spectrometers to predict low concentrations of urea, glycine, taurine, and melamine in whey protein powder (WPP). Effectiveness of scanning samples through optical glass and polyethylene bags was also tested for the handheld NIRS. WPP was adulterated up to six concentration levels from 0.5% to 3% /. The two spectrometers were used to obtain three datasets of 819 diffuse reflectance spectra each that were pretreated before linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and regression (PLSR). Pretreatment was effective and revealed important absorption bands that could be correlated with the chemical properties of the mixtures. Benchtop NIR spectrometer showed the best results in LDA and PLSR but handheld NIR spectrometers showed comparatively good results. There were high prediction accuracies and low errors attesting to the robustness of the developed PLSR models using independent test set validation. Both the plastic bag and optical glass gave good results with accuracies depending on the adulterant of interest and can be used for field applications.