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Title: RAPID PREDICTION OF GROSS ENERGY AND UTILIZABLE ENERGY IN CEREAL FOOD PRODUCTS USING NEAR INFRARED REFLECTANCE SPECTROSCOPY

Author
item Kays, Sandra
item Barton Ii, Franklin

Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/28/2001
Publication Date: 2/2/2002
Citation: Kays, S.E., Barton II, F.E. 2002. Rapid prediction of gross energy and utilizable energy in cereal food products using near infrared reflectance spectroscopy. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Vol. 50, pp. 1284-1289.

Interpretive Summary: Near infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy, which measures the amount of light energy reflected by a substance, is a very rapid and accurate method of measuring constituents of materials without requiring extensive sample preparation, or creating chemical waste. Previous reports from this laboratory have demonstrated the potential of NIR for the simultaneous prediction of dietary fiber, protein and fat in cereal food products. It would be advantageous to be able to simultaneously determine all macro nutrients required on the nutrition label using NIR, however, very little is known about the potential of NIR spectroscopy to determine the available energy in foods for human consumption. The objective of this study was to determine the potential of NIR spectroscopy for the prediction of energy in diverse cereal food products. It was found that models developed to predict utilizable energy (energy adjusted for unutilized protein and energy adjusted for unutilized protein and insoluble dietary fiber), gave results that were well within the accuracy required for nutrition labeling purposes. NIR spectroscopy, thus, provides a rapid and acceptable method of predicting energy of diverse cereal food products.

Technical Abstract: Near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has been used in foods for the rapid assessment of several macro-nutrients, however, little is known about its potential for evaluation of utilizable energy of foods. Using NIR reflectance spectra (1104-2494 nm) of ground cereal products (n=127) and values for energy measured by bomb calorimetry, chemometric models were developed for the prediction of gross energy and available energy of diverse cereal food products. Standard errors of cross validation for NIR prediction of gross energy (range 4.05-5.49 kcal/g), energy of samples after adjustment for unutilized protein (range 3.99-5.38 kcal/g) and energy of samples after adjustment for unutilized protein and insoluble dietary fiber (range 2.42-5.35 kcal/g) were 0.053, 0.053 and 0.088 kcal/g, respectively, with multiple coefficients of determination of 0.96. Use of the models with independent validation samples (n=58) gave predicted energy values within the accuracy required for U.S. nutrition labeling legislation. NIR spectroscopy, thus, provides a rapid and acceptable method for predicting energy of diverse cereal foods.