Additives and soy detection in powder rice beverage by vibrational spectroscopy as an alternative method for quality and safety control

Rice beverage is one of the most consumed plant-based milk alternatives and it is considered a healthy food. However, many products have in its composition food additives that could change the beverages characteristics. In this study, for the first time, the applicability of near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and multivariate analysis were evaluated for additives detection (starch, maltodextrin, polydextrose, soy soluble extract) in powder rice beverages (PRB). The vibrational spectra did not present relevant differences for samples of PRB pure or with additives. An exploratory analysis (PCA) distinguished the samples according the rice brands used for beverage processing. Moreover, PLS-DA methods performed were able to go further the discrimination of rice brands and reach the main differences between a PRB with or without additives, by applying variable selection according the loadings, iPLS and VIP scores. The best models were obtained with MSC + MC and loadings variable selection with sensitivity and specificity higher than 92%. The results showed that NIR associated to chemometric tools was appropriate for discrimination of PRB added or not with additives and could be used to quality control related to beverages composition and safety associated to presence of allergenic, with ability to replace the traditional methods, especially in a screening step. (AU)