Development of a rapid, non-destructive method for egg content determination in dry pasta using FT-NIR technique

A quick, non-destructive method, based on Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy for egg content determination of dry pasta is presented. Multivariate calibration was carried out by using partial least squares (PLS) regression. A calibration set of 108 samples, a validation set of 22 samples and a prediction set of 11 samples of egg pasta were used. The diffuse reflection spectra of different types of pastas were measured by FT-NIR analyzer in the 800–2500 nm spectral range. The optimal results for egg content (root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) = 0.7; R2 = 90.7, Rank = 4) were obtained when the spectra were subjected to the first derivation combined with multiplicative scatter correction (MSC) and smoothing. Egg content was determined from FT-NIR results by introducing a mathematical correction step.

► A method using FT-NIR technique was developed for egg content determination of dry pasta samples.
► The method was based on 130 different pasta samples and it was validated by test set validation.
► The method was suitable for the range of 1–10 eggs kg−1 dry pasta with the RMSEP of 0.7 egg kg−1.
► This is the first use of this non-destructive technique for egg content analysis in any food matrix.