Review: Nirs in Food Analysis for Animal Nutrition

Abstract

The analysis of the nutritional composition of forages and of foods used in animal nutrition is relevant in decision-making within the production process. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a methodology that is based on chemometrics, associating the light absorbed in a food sample with its chemical composition and based on this, prediction equations are developed for each chemical component of the food. . The methodology has been applied in the analysis of forages with reliable results for the prediction of dry matter, protein, structural carbohydrates, soluble, fat and in legumes for the identification of antinutritional factors. For the development of prediction models by component, samples should be collected that cover all the factors of variation of the chemical composition of the food. The prediction models are developed in three phases: calibration, internal validation and external validation in which the model is evaluated according to statistical criteria. The NIRS is a methodology that has been recognized as reliable, low cost, fast and that during the process does not generate chemical waste.

Keywords

• nutritional composition
• chemometry
• calibration