Mid infrared spectroscopy coupled with chemometric tools for qualitative analysis of canned tuna with sunflower medium

Abstract

The most common frauds of tuna cans supply chain concern the substitution or mixing of valuable tuna species with cheaper ones, which is strictly prohibited by the European regulation. The aim of this work was to investigate the ability of mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy as a rapid and non-destructive tool to identify canned bigeye, yellowfin and skipjack tunas and detect their presence in a binary mixture of canned tunas. The MIR spectra were acquired on 232 canned tunas produced at the pilot scale. The factorial discriminant analysis (FDA) was applied to the first 5 principal components (PCs) of the principal component analysis (PCA) of the three spectral regions: 3000–2800 cm−1, 1700–1500 cm−1 and 1500–900 cm−1. A robust model was created with correct classification amounting to 90.38% that was tested on 30 commercial canned tuna. A total (100%) of correct classification was obtained for skipjack tuna, while misclassification was observed for cans labelled as bigeye and yellowfin suggesting an adulteration action or mislabelling during process technology.