Analysis of bakery products by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

• We detected Na and NaCl in bakery products using LIBS.
• LIBS is a rapid and in situ method for Na and NaCl measurements of bakery products.
• LIBS’ results were confirmed with reference methods.
• LIBS owns low detection limits in bakery products.

In this study, we focused on the detection of Na in bakery products by using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) as a quick and simple method. LIBS experiments were performed to examine the Na at 589 nm to quantify NaCl. A series of standard bread sample pellets containing various concentrations of NaCl (0.025–3.5%) were used to construct the calibration curves and to determine the detection limits of the measurements. Calibration graphs were drawn to indicate functions of NaCl and Na concentrations, which showed good linearity in the range of 0.025–3.5% NaCl and 0.01–1.4% Na concentrations with correlation coefficients (R2) values greater than 0.98 and 0.96. The obtained detection limits for NaCl and Na were 175 and 69 ppm, respectively. Performed experimental studies showed that LIBS is a convenient method for commercial bakery products to quantify NaCl concentrations as a rapid and in situ technique.