Raman Spectroscopy Coupled With Chemometric Techniques for Authenticity Assessment of Camel Milk Powder

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Spectroscopy
• Chemometrics

Background:

• Camel milk powder adulteration with cow milk powder is a growing concern impacting nutritional value and consumer trust.
• Authenticity verification is crucial due to the increasing demand for camel milk in specialized health markets.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of Raman spectroscopy coupled with chemometric techniques for detecting and quantifying cow milk powder adulteration in camel milk powder.
• To establish a robust analytical framework for ensuring the integrity of camel milk powder.

Main Methods:

• Raman spectroscopy was employed to analyze camel milk powder adulterated with cow milk powder at concentrations ranging from 0% to 50%.
• Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used for dimensionality reduction, followed by Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) modeling.
• Spectral data underwent various pretreatments, including raw, Savitzky-Golay, and gap derivative, with Interval PLS (IPLS) applied for enhanced variable selection.

Main Results:

• PCA effectively captured 99.6% of spectral variance, indicating efficient data compression.
• Initial PLSR models demonstrated strong predictive capabilities (R2cv = 95.93%), significantly improved by spectral pretreatments.
• Near-perfect prediction accuracy was achieved using the gap derivative (R2test = 99.94%, RMSEtest = 1.10), highlighting the method's precision.

Conclusions:

• The integration of Raman spectroscopy with PCA, PLSR, and IPLS offers a precise, reliable, and robust method for detecting adulteration in camel milk powder.
• This analytical approach serves as an efficient tool for quality control in the dairy industry, ensuring the authenticity and safety of camel milk products.