A Comparative Study of Fourier Transform Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and Physicochemical Methods in Wheat Quality Analysis

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Near-infrared spectroscopy is a non-invasive, rapid, and efficient analytical method widely employed in agricultural quality assessment. This study aims to explore the potential of Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy in the analysis of wheat quality in comparison to traditional physicochemical methods. Key quality parameters such as protein content, bulk density, dough extensibility, development and stability time, wet gluten, and extension area were considered. To compare the similarities between the two methods in an irregular manner and to make the trials more representative, randomized combinations of different samples were made by planting different wheat genotypes in different locations. In wheat protein determination (r = 0.92, p < 0.001), the correlation between protein determinations was very high and highly statistically significant. This indicates that the Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) assay is highly consistent and accurate with the physicochemical method for protein determination. In the quality indices of bulk density (r = 0.46, p < 0.05), dough extensibility (r = 0.46, p < 0.05), development time (r = 0.37, p < 0.05), stability time (r = 0.49, p < 0.01), wet gluten (r = 0.54, p < 0.01), and dough extension area (r = 0.63, p < 0.001), there was a positive correlation between the two assays. Although the correlation was lower compared to the protein assay, it was still statistically significant. This suggests that the FT-NIR assay also has some accuracy in these indices, although there may be some differences from the physicochemical method. Through comparative analysis, we found that in wheat quality assessment, FT-NIR showed a strong correlation and was highly significant in the determination of wheat protein content; in the determination of the extension area, although highly significant, the correlation coefficient was not high, and there was a positive correlation between the two, and a lower correlation was shown in the bulk density, dough extensibility, and development time. These results indicate that FT-NIR can assess the wheat protein content quality indicator. However, its ability to accurately assess wheat quality indicators such as density, dough extensibility, development and stability time, wet gluten, and dough extensibility needs further investigation.