Rapid authentication of Indonesian edible bird's nests by near-infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics

Abstract

Edible bird's nests (EBNs) are a high value-added food widely consumed in Asia. A rapid and simple method for the authentication of EBNs was proposed by using near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and chemometrics. The authentication of EBNs includes identification of genuine/adulterated EBNs, discrimination of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)/non-PDO EBNs, and grading PDO EBNs based on their active component (protein and sialic acid) content. Firstly, 288 samples, that were 48 PDO Indonesian EBNs, 40 non-PDO EBNs (collected from Malaysia and Thailand), and 200 adulterated EBNs prepared in a lab, were analyzed. Secondly, after NIR spectra collection, the 48 PDO EBNs were analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for determination of the active component (sialic acid) content according to the industry standard GH/T 1092-2014. Thirdly, four chemometric methods, genetic algorithm (GA), principal component analysis (PCA), K-nearest neighbors (KNN) and partial least squares regression (PLSR), were employed to develop calibration models for authentication of PDO Indonesian EBNs. The results showed that the performance of the proposed method for genuine EBN identification, PDO EBN discrimination, and PDO EBN grading was 96.77%, 95.45% and 91.67%, respectively.