Abstract
Quality and safety monitoring in the dairy industry is required to ensure products meet a high-standard based on legislation and customer requirements. The need for non-destructive, low-cost and user-friendly process analytical technologies, targeted at operators (as the end-users) for routine product inspections is increasing. In recent years, the development and advances in sensing technologies have led to miniaturisation of near infrared (NIR) spectrometers to a new era. The new generation of miniaturised NIR analysers are designed as compact, small and lightweight devices with a low cost, providing a strong capability for on-site or on-farm product measurements. Applying portable and handheld NIR spectrometers in the dairy sector is increasing; however, little information is currently available on these applications and instrument performance. As a result, this review focuses on recent developments of handheld and portable NIR devices and its latest applications in the field of dairy, including chemical composition, on-site quality detection, and safety assurance (i.e., adulteration) in milk, cheese and dairy powders. Comparison of model performance between handheld and bench-top NIR spectrometers is also given. Lastly, challenges of current handheld/portable devices and future trends on implementing these devices in the dairy sector is discussed.
Highlights
The consumption of dairy products is expected to increase world-wide, in developing countries where there is an increase in population as well as in family incomes [1]
This review aims to provide an overview targeted at dairy processors, researchers, technologists and engineers regarding portable and miniaturised near infrared (NIR) analysers and their potential in the dairy industry
In the work of dos Santos, Lopo, Páscoa and Lopes [44], the authors summarised the applications of portable NIR spectrometers in the food industry including dairy product analysis, only three research studies were mentioned in the review which were related to dairy
Summary
The consumption of dairy products is expected to increase world-wide, in developing countries where there is an increase in population as well as in family incomes [1]. The application of NIRS in the dairy sector dates back to the late 1970s, where it was used to measure low moisture products such as milk powders [10]. Reviewed the application of NIRS for the determination of major components (i.e., fat, protein, and moisture) of dairy products between 1978 and 1997 [11]. A comprehensive review regarding the application of NIR analysis on dairy products was written by Frankhuizen [9,12], providing new updates on the use of NIR to measure major (i.e., moisture, fat, protein, lactose) and minor (i.e., salt, pH, water-soluble primary amines) constituents in different dairy products which included liquid milk, milk powders, casein and caseinates, butter and cheese. The application of portable or handheld NIR in the “Food Science Technology” category has the second greatest number of publication (Figure 1ii). Challenges and future trends on the use of handheld and portable NIR devices in the dairy sector is discussed
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