Recent trends in the use of FTIR spectroscopy integrated with chemometrics for the detection of edible oil adulteration

Abstract Edible oils play an essential role in our routine life as cooking or frying oil as well as an ingredient used in food, medicine, and cosmetic commodities. Because of the high consumption demands of edible oils, adulteration incidents have immensely raised. Thus, adulteration detection is very crucial for consumers, oil-producing industries, and regulatory authorities. The traditional analytical methods are usually time-taking, tedious, detrimental, lacking online monitoring, and need extensive sample preparation. Whereas, the modern oil industry needs a competent and non-calamitous analytical approach for the rapid and precise quality control of edible oils. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is an excellent technique for the detection of edible oil adulteration. It utilizes the fingerprint region of the obtained spectra to differentiate and detect the different adulterants present in the edible oil. The spectra collected by the FTIR spectroscopy are complex and very much similar for different edible oils. To solve this complication, the multivariate branch of chemometrics coupled with FTIR spectral data has been employed to precisely distinguish between different edible oil adulterants. In chemometrics, different regression models, along with its various robust validation parameters, can detect even minute adulteration in edible oil with high precision and accuracy. This concise review presents the critical aspects of major findings and brings together recent studies of the application of FTIR spectroscopy integrated with chemometric tools from several reliable sources.