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Raman Spectroscopy as a Rapid Tool for Quantitative Analysis of Butter Adulterated with Margarine

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Abstract

Butter adulteration with margarine continues to be a threat for consumers; therefore, new rapid analytical tools are needed for quality control/quality assurance purposes. In this study, we used Raman spectroscopy coupled with partial least squares regression to quantify butter adulteration with margarine. The main difference between Raman spectra of butter and margarine comes from two bands associated to C=C double bond (1656 and 1268 cm−1) and the band associated to phospholipids’ choline group (973 cm−1). The intensity of these peaks decreases with a decreasing margarine content. The coefficient of determination (R 2 = 0.994) and root-mean-square error of prediction (RMSEP = 2.754) display very good overall model performance. The sample preparation procedure that we employed was notably simplified compared to previous studies. This confirms that Raman spectroscopy can be effectively applied to quantify butter adulteration with margarine and further indicates that simplification of the analysis procedure is possible. These results could aid the efforts for implementation of this technique in routine rapid quality analysis of butter.

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Acknowledgments

Funding of the European Commission, Seventh Framework Programme project No.316004 (AREA) and research project No. 46009 from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Technology and Biochemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Belgrade, Nemanjina 6, 11080, Zemun-Belgrade, Serbia

    Aleksandar Nedeljković, Jelena Miočinović, Mira Radovanović & Predrag Pudja

  2. Institute of Physical Chemistry and Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich Schiller University, Helmholtzweg 4, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Petra Rösch & Jürgen Popp

  3. Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology, Albert-Einstein-Straße 9, 07745, Jena, Germany

    Jürgen Popp

Authors
  1. Aleksandar Nedeljković
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  2. Petra Rösch
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  3. Jürgen Popp
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  4. Jelena Miočinović
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  5. Mira Radovanović
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  6. Predrag Pudja
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aleksandar Nedeljković.

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This study was funded by the European Commission, Seventh Framework Programme project No.316004 (AREA) and research project No. 46009 from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Republic of Serbia

Conflict of Interest

Author Aleksandar Nedeljković declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Petra Rösch declares that she has no conflict of interest. Author Jürgen Popp declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Jelena Miočinović declares that she has no conflict of interest. Author Mira Radovanović declares that she has no conflict of interest. Author Predrag Pudja declares that he has no conflict of interest. This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Nedeljković, A., Rösch, P., Popp, J. et al. Raman Spectroscopy as a Rapid Tool for Quantitative Analysis of Butter Adulterated with Margarine. Food Anal. Methods 9, 1315–1320 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-015-0317-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-015-0317-1

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