Status: Paper Received
Section: Sensors
Type of Paper: Review Paper
Title: “Recent trends on the use of infrared sensors to trace and authenticate natural and agricultural food products”
Running title: IR to trace and authenticate natural and agricultural products
Author: Daniel Cozzolino
Affiliation: The Australian Wine Research Institute, WCampbelltown, Adelaide, Australia.

Abstract: Verification of authenticity of natural and agricultural base foods has become a potential application of spectroscopic methods such as UV, visible (VIS), near (NIR) and mid (MIR) infrared.  Adulteration can take many forms, including the addition of sugars, acids, volatile oils, over-dilution of concentrate, addition of juices of other fruits, use of concentrate in a ‘fresh’ product and use of low quality product recovered from what are normally waste products of manufacture.  Food adulteration has been practiced since ancient times but has become more sophisticated in the recent past.  Foods or ingredients most likely to be targets for adulteration include those, which are of high-value, or are subject to the vagaries of weather during their growth or harvesting.  The practice of adulteration commonly arises for two main reasons: firstly it can be profitable, and secondly adulterants can be easily mixed and are subsequently difficult to detect.  To counter this problem manufacturers subject their raw material and by-products to a series of quality controls which includes high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), thin layer chromatography (TLC), enzymatic tests and physical tests, to establish their authenticity and guarantee the quality of the products manufactured for the consumers.  This mini-review highlights recent applications on the use of NIR and MIR spectroscopy to trace and authenticate natural and agricultural products.

Keywords: near infrared, mid infrared, spectroscopy, authenticity, traceability, meat, wine, olive oil, fruit, juice, honey.