The Ability of Vibrational Spectroscopy to Analyze Holistically the Food Matrix-Moving Away from the Concept of Individual Compounds

The concepts of food matrix and holistic analysis have been used in a wide range of scientific disciplines to describe the sum of the parts of a whole that provide a specific property or functionality to the sample. Traditional chemical and physical analysis needs to destroy the sample (e.g., dilution, extraction, drying) before analysis. The utilization of vibrational spectroscopy techniques, like near (NIR), mid infrared (MIR) and Raman spectroscopy, allows for the non-destructive analysis of food ingredients and products. The resulting output of this analysis is based on the information provided by the vibrational modes of atoms present in the different molecules, allowing the measurement of different chemical and physical characteristics of the food. The objective of this paper is to discuss the ability of vibrational spectroscopy methods to provide robust tools to analyze the food matrix holistically, moving away from the traditional analysis of individual compounds or chemical parameters. Studies discussed and presented in this review demonstrated the ability of vibrational spectroscopy (e.g., NIR, MIR and Raman spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging) to assess the whole food matrix beyond the traditional notion of developing a calibration model.