Abstract:
Near infrared spectroscopy offers advantages in the analysis of vegetable oils
such as rapidity, relative cost-effectiveness, and usually no need for sample preparation.
Virgin Sunflower oils were used as reference standards to develop
spectra library for qualitative identification and validation of the method. This
model was validated by correct classification method using positive and negative
control samples. Various market samples of virgin sunflower oil were
purchased and compared with spectra library. The results of spectral analysis
of reference library and market samples were correlated using Mahalanobis
distance method. Analysis involved 22 market samples. When these samples
were matched against calibration samples, 4 samples out of 22 which are about
18.2% were not matched by the reference model. These market samples had
Mahalanobis distance values between 4.2 and 6.7, which are greater than
maximum permissible value of 3. Some of adulterants mentioned were Korie
oil and pumpkin seeds oil.
