Abstract
Although Hom Mali rice is considered the highest quality rice in Thailand, it is susceptible to adulteration and substitution. There is a need for rapid, low-cost and efficient analytical techniques for monitoring the authenticity and geographical origin of Thai Hom Mali rice. In this study, two infrared spectroscopy techniques, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy with attenuated total reflection (FTIR-ATR) and near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, were applied and compared for the differentiation of Thai Hom Mali rice from two geographical regions over two production years. The Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA) model, built using spectral data from the benchtop FTIR-ATR, achieved 96.97% and 100% correct classification of the test dataset for each of the production years, respectively. The OPLS-DA model, built using spectral data from the portable handheld NIR, achieved 84.85% and 86.96% correct classification of the test dataset for each of the production years, respectively. Direct NIR analysis of the polished rice grains (i.e., no sample preparation) was determined as reliable for analysis of ground rice samples. FTIR-ATR and NIR spectroscopic analysis both have significant potential as screening tools for the rapid detection of fraud issues related to the geographical origin of Thai Hom Mali rice.
Highlights
Rice is a staple food for over half of the world’s population and plays a major role in global food security [1]
The results of this study demonstrate the potential of the application of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)-attenuated total reflectance (ATR) and NIR spectroscopy for the geographical differentiation of Thai Hom Mali rice
This study has demonstrated that FTIR-ATR and NIR spectroscopy, combined with Orthogonal Projections to Latent Structures Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA), is a promising analytical tool for the geographical differentiation of Thai Hom Mali rice
Summary
Rice is a staple food for over half of the world’s population and plays a major role in global food security [1]. It is widely acknowledged that Thai Hom Mali rice originating from the northeastern region of Thailand has superior organoleptic properties and is of higher quality. This creates an incentive for unscrupulous producers and retailers to mislabel rice originating from other geographical regions and represent it as more valuable rice cultivated in the northeast for financial gain [4]. These activities often remain undetected due to the lack of rapid analytical techniques that can be applied to screen samples in the supply chain
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