Calibration Transfer between PDA-Based NIR Spectrometers in the NIR Assessment of Melon Soluble Solids Content

Abstract

In near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, the transfer of predictive models between Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) and scanning–grating-based instruments has been accomplished on relatively dry samples (< 10% water) using various chemometric techniques—for example, slope and bias correction (SBC), direct standardization (DS), piecewise direct standardization (PDS), orthogonal signal correction (OSC), finite impulse transform (FIR) and wavelet transform (WT), and application of neural networks. In this study, seven well-known techniques [SBC, DS, PDS, double-window PDS (DWPDS), OSC, FIR, and WT], a photometric response correction and wavelength interpolative method, and a model updating method were assessed in terms of root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) (using Fearn's significance testing) for calibration transfer (standardization) between pairs of spectrometers from a group of four spectrometers for noninvasive prediction of soluble solid content (SSC) of melon fruit. The spectrometers were diffraction grating-based instruments incorporating photodiode array photodetectors (MMS1, Carl Zeiss, Jena, Germany), used with a standard optical geometry of sample, light source, and spectrometer. A modified WT method performed significantly better than all other standardization methods and on a par with model updating.