Coffee varietal differentiation based on near infrared spectroscopy

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used to discriminate between arabica and robusta pure coffee varieties and blends of varied varietal composition. Direct orthogonal signal correction (DOSC) pre-processing method was applied on a set of 191 roasted coffee NIR spectra from both pure varieties and blends varying the final robusta content from 0 to 60% (w/w) in order to remove information unrelated to the actual varietal composition of samples. The corrected NIR spectra, as well as raw NIR spectra, were used to develop separate classification models using the potential functions method as class-modelling technique, exploring several options more or less restrictive according to the final number of considered categories. All constructed classification models were compared to evaluate their respective qualities and to show the suitability of applying DOSC method as pre-processing step for developing improved classification models for coffee varietal identification purposes.