Miniaturized NIR spectroscopy for the determination of main carbohydrates in syrup

This article gives an insight into the advances of miniaturized spectrometers on their way to success dealing with the determination of main carbohydrates in syrups. To evaluate the performances of such portable spectrometers, a comparison of the prediction ability, applying Partial Least Squares Regression models, was carried out. Spectra were recorded using a commercially available handheld and a conventional benchtop spectrometer. This work shows that NIR spectroscopy (both benchtop and handheld) can be used for the determination of the main carbohydrates sucrose, glucose and fructose in syrups. Measuring these main constituents in syrups is of great importance in the producing industries. Usually, these sugars are determined via enzymatic hydrolysis with high accuracy, but this method is expensive, time- and resource-consuming. These drawbacks brought up the question of possible alternatives which, if possible, are not restricted to a laboratory environment. NIR spectroscopy fulfills those requirements and was therefore considered to be an attractive alternative for this application.