Abstract
In this review, the application of the photoacustic spectroscopy (PAS) is presented as an option to evaluate the quality of food. This technique is a type of spectroscopy based on photothermal phenomena, which allow spectroscopic studies. According to the literature review, it was found that its application is increasing in several countries. Spectroscopic studies carried out by employing PAS in the food industry include, among others, fruit, vegetables, condiments, grains, legumes, flours, “tortillas,” milk, water, eggs, etc. Additionally, this technique has been used to evaluate adulterated, irradiated, and contaminated food and so on. The literature review has shown the applicability of PAS to one of the problems of the real world, i.e., food quality assessment. Therefore, PAS can contribute in the future with a wide potential for new applications in the food agroindustry.
Highlights
One of the problems worldwide is the quality and quantity of food
Absorption band in the range of 550–750 nm is attributed to anthocyanins in the aleurone layer (Hernandez-Aguilar et al.) [47]. e curcuma and “curry” have a higher optical absorbance spectrum obtained by photoacustic spectroscopy (PAS) when compared to the optical absorption spectrum of mustard at the range of 300 to 670 nm. e maximum absorption peaks in the samples evaluated from calculating the first derivative of the absorbance spectra were found at 318, 345, and 535 nm (Hernandez et al.) [64]
Significant findings/results e PA spectroscopy was demonstrated as a suitable technique to study the optical absorption coefficient β of wheat seeds with and without photosensitizer (Hernandez-Aguilar et al.) [75]. e PA method was demonstrated as a technique capable of studying the effect caused by irradiation of maize seeds
Summary
One of the problems worldwide is the quality and quantity of food. In developing countries, this is even more evident, causing several chronic diseases such as cancer and malnutrition, according to Hernandez et al [1]. erefore, the development of technologies to improve global food production is necessary since one of the main challenges of our time is to feed a growing worldwide population [2,3,4,5,6]. E PA spectra, obtained by PAS, encompassed the spectral region from 200 to 500 nm It was reported, absorption peaks at 290 nm (for all evaluated cases), which is associated with the presence of aromatic amino acids in the milk powders. E authors highlight that PAS is a nondestructive technique that might be extended to other horticultural crops [57] In this way, PAS is a type of absorption spectroscopy, which allows to obtain optical absorbance spectra, as a function of wavelength, which provides information about the optical absorbance processes that occur in the sample. It is possible to observe different food types and agricultural material, which have been evaluated by PAS, using conventional instrumentation, to obtain its optical spectra. It is worth mentioning that amplitude spectra and phase ones and signals depending on the frequency can be obtained, which would lead to the application of other methods and mathematical analysis to obtain nonradiative relaxation times and sample depth analysis [95,96,97,98,99,100], among other optical and thermal parameters
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