Short communication: Selecting the most informative mid-infrared spectra wavenumbers to improve the accuracy of prediction models for detailed milk protein content.

The objective of this study was to investigate the ability of mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIRS) to predict protein fraction contents of bovine milk samples by applying uninformative variable elimination (UVE) procedure to select the most informative wavenumber variables before partial least squares (PLS) analysis. Reference values (n=114) of protein fractions were measured using reversed-phase HPLC and spectra were acquired through MilkoScan FT6000 (Foss Electric A/S, Hillerød, Denmark). Prediction models were built using the full data set and tested with a leave-one-out cross-validation. Compared with MIRS models developed using standard PLS, the UVE procedure reduced the number of wavenumber variables to be analyzed through PLS regression and improved the accuracy of prediction by 6.0 to 66.7%. Good predictions were obtained for total protein, total casein (CN), and α-CN, which included αS1- and αS2-CN; moderately accurate predictions were observed for κ-CN and total whey protein; and unsatisfactory results were obtained for β-CN, α-lactalbumin, and β-lactoglobulin. Results indicated that UVE combined with PLS is a valid approach to enhance the accuracy of MIRS prediction models for milk protein fractions.