Avaliação da aplicação de espectroscopia de infravermelho próximo para tipificação de farinha de trigo

Abstract

Wheat and its derivatives, particularly flours, are widely consumed worldwide. Each type of flour has specific characteristics that determine its apliplications, both in industrial and household contexts. In the industrial sector, flour quality is monitored from the reception of wheat grains through the final processing stages. However, the methods traditionally employed for this evaluation are time-consuming and often equipmententail ligh reagent and specialized equipment costs. In this context, the present study aims to evaluate the potential of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, combined with chemometric methods, for wheat flour classification. For this purpose, two instruments were used to acquire NIR spectra, with the aim of relating spectral data to the physicochemical and rheological parameters of the samples. The evaluated parameters included moisture and volatile content, ash, protein, and gluten content, as well as falling number, alveography, farinography, and color measurements. A total of 373 samples of different types of wheat flour (Type 1, Type 2, off-type, and whole wheat) were analyzed. The samples were provided by an agro-industrial cooperative located in Campo Mourão, Paraná, Brazil, which also supplied the reference physicochemical and rheological data. For data integration and interpretation, principal component analysis (PCA) was initially applied, followed by the multiblock approach common dimensions analysis (ComDim), using PCA scores as input. The results of the exploratory analyses indicate that near-infrared spectroscopy has strong potencial as a screening tool for wheat flour classification, yielding results comparable to those of conventional methods.