Application of FTIR Spectroscopy and Chemometric Classification Techniques for Detecting Adulteration in Cinnamon Powder

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Article- En

Authors

M. Masoudi ¹

R. Khodabakhshian ¹

M. R. Golzarian ²

¹ Department of Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

² The University of Notre Dame Australia

https://doi.org/10.22067/jam.2026.98580.1489

Abstract

Cinnamon is a highly valued aromatic spice widely used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Due to its extensive applications, cinnamon is susceptible to food fraud, necessitating effective authentication methods. This study uses FTIR spectroscopy and spectral pattern analysis to establish a reliable method for detecting fraud in cinnamon powder by comparing authentic and adulterated samples. The ultimate goal is to provide a practical methodology for identifying adulteration in the spice industry. In this work, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was employed alongside pattern recognition techniques for the authentication of cinnamon powder. To detect and classify fraudulent samples (adulterants include soybean powder, hazelnut shell powder, and dry bread powder, in different concentrations of 5%, 10% and 15% (w/w)) nondestructively, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was utilised as an unsupervised method, while Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) and Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) were applied as supervised pattern recognition approaches. The results indicated that while the spectral data of the samples were effectively classified using the PCA technique, some overlap between specific groups was noted. The overall classification accuracy achieved by the SIMCA and PLS-DA classifiers was 83% and 90%, respectively. Based on PCA modelling, SIMCA enabled the classification of samples into two distinct groups (pure vs. adulterated), and the classification accuracy of this two-class model reached 100%. These findings confirm the effectiveness of combining FTIR with pattern recognition techniques for robust and nondestructive authentication of adulterated cinnamon powder, contributing to quality control in the spice industry.

Keywords

Cinnamon authentication

Food fraud detection

Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy

Pattern recognition techniques

Quality control in spices

Subjects

• Postharvest, Processing and Agri-food Engineering

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Authors retain the copyright. This is an open access article distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0)

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