Water monitoring with hyperspectral techniques

1 - The poor of the world depends directly on water and other natural resources for their livelihoods. Water resources must therefore be managed in a sustainable manner in order to maintain the economic, social and environmental functions and to contribute to the livelihoods of people. 2 - Advancements in sensor technologies and processing algorithms have resulted in technical capabilities that can record and identify Earth surface materials based on the interaction of electromagnetic energy with the molecular structure of the material being sensed. 3 - Non-destructive and operative methodologies (NIR and Raman) will be tested through field surveys and laboratory analysis using Aquaphotomics approach. This approach requires precise measuring and mapping capabilities at field level of key data at a sufficient level of accuracy depending on the availability of equipment that must be also operated at a cost-effective way

La spettroscopia NIR applicata al controllo qualità del caviale : risultati preliminari

Il presente lavoro si propone di applicare la spettroscopia NIR per la caratterizzazione del caviale grazie anche alla disponibilit\ue0 di strumentazione miniaturizzata e portatile, potenzialmente utilizzabile anche in azienda nel controllo di processo e di prodotto. A questo scopo, tre serie di 19 campioni di caviale, ottenuti da tre differenti pesci della specie Acipenser transmontanus, sono state analizzate utilizzando uno spettrometro microNIR (Diessechem). Gli spettri sono stati raccolti nell'intervallo da 900 a 1600 nm (200 scansioni; 128 punti). In parallelo \ue8 stato determinato il contenuto in umidit\ue0, lipidi e proteine con metodi di riferimento. I dati sono stati elaborati mediante PLSR dopo pretrattamento SNV e Mean Center, utilizzando PLSToolbox (Eingenvector) e le precalibrazioni (LV = 5) sono state verificate in cross-validazione. La capacit\ue0 discriminante della tecnica al fine di identificare la provenienza dal singolo pesce \ue8 stata valutata mediante PCA ad un livello di confidenza del 95%. I parametri statistici associati alle determinazioni quantitative hanno fornito risultati promettenti con valori di RMSECV e di R2CV rispettivamente di 0,46 e 0,892 (umidit\ue0 SEL 0,25); 0,51 e 0,845 (proteine SEL 0,42); 0,78 e 0, 606 (lipidi SEL 0,51). Il potere discriminante intraspecie della tecnica ha permesso inoltre di identificare correttamente il pesce di provenienza. Questa prima indagine fa parte di un progetto pi\uf9 ampio che prevede lo studio di campioni di caviale ottenuti da differenti specie raccolti nell'arco di 18 mesi di produzione

Modelling the process of milk-whey syneresis during fresh cheese production by Near InfraRed Spectroscopy

The aim of this work was to test the suitability of Near InfraRed Spectroscopy for modelling the process of milk-whey syneresis during the cheese-making of an Italian fresh cheese, named Crescenza cheese. The applicability of NIRS for this purpose was tested at the lab scale and it was verified at the pilot scale level. Crescenza cheese is produced only from pasteurised whole cow's milk; thermophylic lactic acid bacteria were used as starters. It was chosen as model of fresh cheese because it covers, at this moment, more than 40% of Italian fresh cheese market. Furthermore, whey is a reliable source for a number of high quality and biologically-active proteins, carbohydrates and minerals. Nine lab tests, using 3L of milk for each assay, were carried out simulating the cheese-making process. Six whey sampling points were individuated as critical point of this process, after clotting and curd cutting. NIR spectra were collected, at each sampling point, by an InfraAlyser 500 spectrometer (Bran+Luebbe) in trasflectance mode in the range 1100-2500 nm at room temperature. FT-NIR spectra were also collected by the NIR-Lab 200 spectrometer (Buchi) in trasflectance mode in the range 10000-4000 cm-1 at room temperature. NIR data were processed by applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to NIR and FT-NIR data one by one in order to verify their distribution on a plane defined by two PCs. Factorial Discriminant Analysis (FDA) was also applied to classify the whey samplings according the evolution of syneresis process. The loadings plot allowed the identification of absorption bands mainly responsible for the process trend; they were associated to water-water, water-protein and water-fat interactions. PLS1 regression, applied to scores distribution obtained by statistical analyses made before (PCA, FDA), allowed the identification of the principal critical points during syneresis process. The transposition of this model to pilot scale (5 cheese-making processes;150L each), confirmed the suitability of NIRS suggesting the potential use of this technique as on-line routine control. The monitoring of whey syneresis process can indirectly give interesting information about the related cheese-making process, occurring in a more accurate control of cheese production in real-time. The same approach can be extended to monitor the whey syneresis of other dairy production. The collected information could also be used to define the milk whey quality and composition

Mare milk fatty acids with reference to donkey, cow, goat and human milk

Trials were carried out on 6 Noriker (N),12 Thoroughbred (TH), 38 Haflinger (H) and 9 Amiata donkeys milk samples collected at 30, 60 and 90 days from delivery. FA profile was investigated referring mainly to linoleic acid (LA), α-linolenic acid (ALA), LA/ALA ratio and saturated/ unsaturated ratio. LA content was higher in Thoroughbred milk samples at 30, 60 and 90 days. LA/ALA ratio was 0.51, 0.49, 0.39 in Noriker samples at 30, 60, 90 days with a saturated/unsaturated ratio about 1. In Thoroughbred milk samples saturated/unsaturated ratio was 0.87, 0.71, 0.57 and in Haflinger samples 1.24, 1.09, 1.29 respectively at 30, 60, 90 days after delivery. Investigations concerned also milk FA content from Haflinger, Noriker ,Thoroughbred and Amiata milk samples collected at 60 lactation days compared with cow, goat and human milk collected at the same time. Unsaturated FA were found about 55% in mare samples, higher than cow and goat (33.49%-30.21%) and similar to human milk (54.62%). Lower levels (25.13%) were found in Amiata samples. All mare samples were rich in LA (6.22%-15.41% FA) and ALA (7.88%-12.50%). In human milk LA and ALA were 13.54% and 1.02%, respectively; LA and ALA content was high also in donkeys samples (8.17% and 6.69%) and lower in goat (2.62% and 0.63%) and in cow (1.86% and 0.57%). Saturated/unsaturated ratio range was between 0.70 and 1.09 in different horses breed samples, 3.04 in Amiata 2.30 ratio was observed in goat samples, 1.88 and 0.83 respectively in cow and in human milk samples

A preliminary study of using the FT-NIR spectroscopy to monitor the shelf-life of packed industrial Ricotta cheese

Ricotta cheese is a dairy product characterised by a short shelf life. The aim of this study was to monitor changes occurring during storage of packed industrial Ricotta cheese using a simple and fast method. Several samples of manufactured Ricotta cheese were monitored during storage at three different temperatures (3, 10 and 20\ub0C). Spectral data were collected over the range 12000 to 4400 cm-1 using a FT-NIR spectrometer fitted with an optic fibre working in diffuse reflectance. Some chemical and rheological parameters were also measured. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied as an exploratory chemometric technique to each one of the three sets of data (FT-NIR, chemical and rheological data), and a calibration model between the NIR data set and chemical and rheological indices was developed by means of a PLS1 regression. The PCA results, showed in all cases the influence of the storage temperature on the shelf life trend, and were able to identify a critical day of shelf life for each storage temperature

Behavior of Aflatoxin M1 in dairy wastes subjected to different technological treatments: Ricotta cheese production, ultrafiltration and spray-drying

Although considered by-products of cheese production, milk whey, deproteinized whey and valuable components extracted from them, have several commercial uses as nutritional supplements and processing aids. In order to verify the safety of these products, destiny of AFM1 contaminating whey and deproteinized whey subjected to different technological treatments was investigated. During Ricotta cheese production the main part of AFM1, on average 94%, was lost in the liquid portion, while only 6% remained in the curd. Whey and deproteinized whey remaining from Ricotta cheese production were then subjected to ultrafiltration and spray-drying. In the first case, ultrafiltration coupled with diafiltration allowed to remove more than 90% of toxin without losing proteins. Spray-drying was efficient in reducing AFM1 contamination, too: in whey, toxin recovery was around 60%, aligned with powder recovery, while in deproteinized whey AFM1 recovery was around 39%, by far lower than powder recovery, confirming a loss