V. Bellon et al., INFRARED AND NEAR-INFRARED TECHNOLOGY FOR THE FOOD-INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURAL USES - ONLINE APPLICATIONS, Food control, 5(1), 1994, pp. 21-27
Mid-infrared and near-infrared spectroscopy are well-known analytical
tools for the food industry but they have different properties. On com
parison, due to its lower absorption coefficients, near-infrared allow
s quantitative analysis, especially on solid samples, whereas, due to
its high selectivity, mid-infrared is most suitable for qualitative an
alysis. The aim of this article is to present general guidelines for t
he choice of a technology according to the type of problem, of their u
se in two specific cases. The first example describes the most appropr
iate system for the quantification of individual sugars in a liquid mi
xture. Fourier transform/infrared spectroscopy is used to detect fruct
ose and glucose it fermentation processes with standard errors of pred
iction respectively equal to 2.4 and 3.6 g/l. The second example descr
ibes a tool for solid product control at a high speed: near-infrared c
oupled with optical fibres is selected to detect sugar in fruit at a r
ate of three fruits per second.