Determination of fatty acid profile in cow's milk using mid-infrared spectrometry: Interest of applying a variable selection by genetic algorithms before a PLS regression

The new challenges of the dairy industry require an accurate estimation of fine milk composition. The mid-infrared (MIR) spectrometry method appears to be a good, fast and cheap method for assessing milk fatty acid profile. Although partial least squares (PLS) regression is a very useful and powerful method to determine fine milk composition from the spectra, the estimations are not always very accurate and stable over time. Therefore a genetic algorithm (GA) combined with a PLS regression was used to produce models with a reduced number of wavelengths and a better accuracy. The results are a little sensitive to the choice of parameters in the algorithm. The number of wavelengths to consider is reduced substantially by 4 and accuracy is increased on average by 15%.