Rapid authentication and composition determination of cellulose films by UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy

In recent years, efforts to develop new materials for the food industry have focused mainly on polysaccharides-and proteins-based films or coatings. Fast and inexpensive analytical tools are needed to guarantee their compositions. This work evaluates the feasibility of a rapid and accurate method based on UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy combined with chemometric techniques to analyze polysaccharide-based films for authentication and composition determination. As case study, cellulose-based films (vegetable and bacterial) combined with chitosan and polyvinyl alcohol were used as biocomposite models. Applying chemometric techniques, it was obtained models to predict the content of chitosan, polyvinyl alcohol and cellulose. Linear discriminant analysis was used to authenticate cellulose films, showing an accuracy of 100% to classify cellulose films as function on the cellulose source (vegetable or bacterial). It was concluded that UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy combined with chemometrics can be used to authenticate the origin and determine the composition of polysaccharide-based films.