Rapid prediction of gross energy and utilizable energy in cereal food products using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy.

Abstract

Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has been used in foods for the rapid assessment of several macronutrients; however, little is known about its potential for the evaluation of the utilizable energy of foods. Using NIR reflectance spectra (1104-2494 nm) of ground cereal products (n = 127) and values for energy measured by bomb calorimetry, chemometric models were developed for the prediction of gross energy and available energy of diverse cereal food products. Standard errors of cross-validation for NIR prediction of gross energy (range = 4.05-5.49 kcal/g), energy of samples after adjustment for unutilized protein (range = 3.99-5.38 kcal/g), and energy of samples after adjustment for unutilized protein and insoluble dietary fiber (range = 2.42-5.35 kcal/g) were 0.053, 0.053, and 0.088 kcal/g, respectively, with multiple coefficients of determination of 0.96. Use of the models on independent validation samples (n = 58) gave energy values within the accuracy required for U.S. nutrition labeling legislation. NIR spectroscopy, thus, provides a rapid and accurate method for predicting the energy of diverse cereal foods.