Quantification of nitrate content with FT-NIR technique in lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) variety types: a statistical approach

Ildikó Fruzsina Boros,László Csambalik,László Sipos,Marietta Fodor,Noémi Kappel

doi:10.1007/s13197-020-04442-1

Ildikó Fruzsina Boros, László Csambalik + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s13197-020-04442-1

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Abstract

According to the Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1258/2011, the maximum allowed nitrate content of lettuce is defined within a broad range (2000–5000 mg NO3/kg), depending on harvest season and technology. This study focuses on the identification of the differences in nitrate accumulation between lettuce types and varieties, depending on production technology and on the investigation of the application of non-destructive FT-NIR spectroscopy for nitrate quantification, towards widely used UV–Vis spectroscopy.In the present study, combinations of seasons and technologies (spring × greenhouse, autumn × open field) were employed for the production of types (batavia, butterhead, lollo and oak leaf; both red and green colored); a total of 266 lettuce heads were analyzed. It was found that with standardized technology and conditions, autumn harvested green oak leaf lettuce types accumulated significantly less nitrate, than red oak or lollo leaf types. With spring harvested lettuces, batavia types generally accumulated generally more nitrates than butterhead types. Based on the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) of FT-NIR measurements the four distinct variety types diverge; the lollo type explicitly diverges from batavia and butterhead types. The LDA further revealed, that within lollo and oak leaf variety types, red and green leaved varieties diverge as well. A model was successfully built for the FT-NIR quantification of the nitrate content of lettuce samples (R2 = 0.95; RMSEE = 74.4 mg/kg fresh weight; Q2 = 0.90; RMSECV = 99.4 mg/kg fresh weight). The developed model is capable of the execution of a fast and non-invasive measurement; the method is suitable for the routine measurement of nitrate content in lettuce.

Highlights

The statistics of the World Health Organization and the results of international studies show that 73% of human health depends on factors which can be influenced; the most important ones of them are lifestyle, environmental factors and the healthcare system
This study focuses on the identification of the differences in nitrate accumulation between lettuce types and varieties, depending on production technology and on the investigation of the application of non-destructive Fourier Transform Near Infrared spectroscopy (FT-NIR) spectroscopy for nitrate quantification, towards widely used UV–Vis spectroscopy
The linear discriminant analysis (LDA) further revealed, that within variety types, red and green leaved variants of lollo and oak leaf types definitely diverge from each other as well (Fig. 4), which was confirmed in this case by the validation with random grouping

Summary

Introduction

The statistics of the World Health Organization and the results of international studies show that 73% of human health depends on factors which can be influenced; the most important ones of them are lifestyle, environmental factors and the healthcare system. Minerals and vitamins, harmful materials (viruses, bacteria, fungi, heavy metals, pesticides, chemicals, secondary or tertiary metabolites) are taken into the human body as well. In the presence of oral bacteria nitrates reacts enzymatically with saliva and decompose to nitrites, which further react with secondary and tertiary amino-compounds and can form N-nitroso compounds (Lijinski 1999). It is widely accepted, that the amount of nitrates consumed with foodstuffs should be reduced; several sources describe the possible risks of nitrate intake (Santamaria 2006)

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