[Detection of benzoyl peroxide in wheat flour by NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy technique]

Adding benzoyl peroxide (BPO) into wheat flour was prohibited by the relevant government departments since May 1, 2011. And it is of great importance to detect BPO additive amount in wheat flour quickly and accurately. Part of BPO which was added into wheat flour will be deoxidized into benzoic acid, and this make it complex to detect the original BPO additive amount. The objective of the present research is to investigate the potential of NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy as a way for measurement of BPO original adding amount in wheat flour. A total of 133 wheat flour samples were prepared by adding different content of BPO into pure wheat flour. Spectra data were obtained by NIR spectrometer and then denoised by wavelet transform. Ninety seven samples were taken as calibration set and other 36 samples as prediction set. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was applied to establish the calibration model between BPO original adding contents and the spectra data. The determination coefficient of model for the calibration set is 0.8901, and root mean squared error of calibration (RMSEC) is 40.85 mg x kg(-1). The determination coefficient for the prediction set is 0.8865, and root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEP) is 44.69 mg x kg(-1). The result indicates that it is feasible to detect the BPO adding contents in wheat flour by NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy technique and this technique has the potential to measure some other additives in food.