Innovative uses of near-infrared spectroscopy in food processing.

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has experienced widespread use as an analytical tool in the last 3 decades. Researchers today are exploring ways of applying NIRS that expand beyond compositional analyses into process control. Processes such as meat tenderness evaluation, curd cutting, and dough mixing have traditionally been controlled by highly skilled master craftsmen; new NIRS research applications are demonstrating that these complex processes can be monitored and controlled in situ to produce consistent, high quality end products with online NIRS technology. Additionally, researchers also now have the potential ability to develop new nondestructive spectroscopic techniques to probe the underlying molecular evolution of these products during processing.