Common components and specific weights analysis: A chemometric method for dealing with complexity of food products

Food products can be considered as complex systems that have to be described by several kinds of measurements. Nowadays, in food industry, more and more studies result in different data tables obtained from various types of measurements carried out on the same samples. In these situations, chemometrics provide invaluable tools, which makes it possible to take into account the whole information contained in the data tables and to discriminate between samples.We show in this work that the investigation of the relationships among data tables collected on the same samples can be a powerful approach in:–Food engineering and reverse engineering. In this case the relationships among data tables collected in the course of the fabrication process can be used to set up “technological paths” of the products.–The global characterization of food products. In this case the relationships among data tables collected by means of different methods can be used for an exhaustive characterization of the products.Each of these topics is illustrated in this paper by a case study. The investigation of the relationships between data tables was performed using a chemometric method: Common Components and Specific Weights Analysis. A brief presentation of the method together with recent developments is outlined.