title: Measurement of pesticide residues in peppers by near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Peppers are a frequent object of food safety alerts in various member states of the European Union owing to the presence in some batches of unauthorised pesticide residues. This study assessed the viability of near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) for the measurement of pesticide residues in peppers. Commercially available spectrophotometers using different sample-presentation methods were evaluated for this purpose: a diode-array spectrometer for intact raw peppers and two scanning monochromators fitted with different sample-presentation accessories (transport and spinning modules) for crushed peppers and for dry extract system for infrared analysis (DESIR), respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Models developed using partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS2-DA) correctly classified between 62 and 68% of samples by presence/absence of pesticides, depending on the instrument used. At model validation, the highest percentage of correctly classified samples-75 and 82% for pesticide-free and pesticide-containing samples respectively-were obtained for intact peppers using the diode-array spectrometer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results obtained confirmed that NIRS technology may be used to provide swift, non-destructive preliminary screening for pesticide residues; suspect samples may then be analysed by other confirmatory analytical methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bromatology and Food Technology, University of Cordoba, Córdoba, Spain.
authors.forename: María-Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Flores-Rojas
authors.forename: José Emilio
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Guerrero
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garrido-Varo
authors.forename: Dolores
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pérez-Marín
mesh_terms: D002212:Capsicum / Q000737:chemistry*; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005504:Food Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D005511:Food Handling; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D010573:Pesticide Residues / Q000032:analysis*; D013055:Spectrophotometry, Infrared / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D010573:Pesticide Residues