Competing technologies: determining the geographical origin of strawberries ( <i>Fragaria</i> × <i>ananassa</i> ) using laboratory based near-infrared spectroscopy compared to a simple portable device

The application and development of fast and simple screening methods for the authentication of foods has increased continuously in recent years. A widely used analytical technique is Fourier transform near-infrared spectroscopy (FT-NIR). Despite the simple application of FT-NIR analysis, the analyses are usually carried out on benchtop devices in the laboratory. However small, inexpensive and mobile NIR devices could be used on-site. Despite the simple use of FT-NIR analysis, the examinations are usually carried out on a stationary benchtop device in a laboratory. However, in order to be able to perform the application directly on site, the application of small, cost-effective and mobile NIR devices for food analysis is crucial. In this study, both, a benchtop NIR instrument and a handheld NIR device with a lower resolution and analyzed wavenumber range were applied for the differentiation of strawberries from different geographical origins. Distinguishing German and non-German strawberries using linear discriminant analysis (LDA) yielded an accuracy of 91.9% and 84.0% using the benchtop and the handheld devices, respectively. Relevant variables could be assigned to lipids, carbohydrates and proteins. Overall, our study demonstrated for the first time that analyzing the geographical origin of strawberries using NIR spectroscopy is also possible by means of a handheld device.