Application of SWIR hyperspectral imaging and chemometrics for identification of aflatoxin B 1 contaminated maize kernels

Abstract A short-wave infrared (SWIR) hyperspectral imaging system (1000–2500 nm) combined with chemometric data analysis was used to detect aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1 ) on surfaces of 600 kernels of four yellow maize varieties from different States of the USA (Georgia, Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska). For each variety, four AFB 1 solutions (10, 20, 100 and 500 ppb) were artificially deposited on kernels and a control group was generated from kernels treated with methanol solution. Principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA) and factorial discriminant analysis (FDA) were applied to explore and classify maize kernels according to AFB 1 contamination. PCA results revealed partial separation of control kernels from AFB 1 contaminated kernels for each variety while no pattern of separation was observed among pooled samples. A combination of standard normal variate and first derivative pre-treatments produced the best PLSDA classification model with accuracy of 100% and 96% in calibration and validation, respectively, from Illinois variety. The best AFB 1 classification results came from FDA on raw spectra with accuracy of 100% in calibration and validation for Illinois and Nebraska varieties. However, for both PLSDA and FDA models, poor AFB 1 classification results were obtained for pooled samples relative to individual varieties. SWIR spectra combined with chemometrics and spectra pre-treatments showed the possibility of detecting maize kernels of different varieties coated with AFB 1 . The study further suggests that increase of maize kernel constituents like water, protein, starch and lipid in a pooled sample may have influence on detection accuracy of AFB 1 contamination.