The assessment of the chemical composition of fishmeal by near infrared reflectance spectroscopy

The use of near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) was investigated as an alternative method for predicting moisture (M), oil, crude protein (CP), ash, salt as NaCl, total volatile nitrogen (TVN) and buffer capacity in fishmeal. The NIRS calibration models were developed using the modified partial least squares (MPLS) regression technique. One thousand and ten (n =1010) fishmeal samples were used to predict chemical composition for quality control in the fishmeal industry. Equations were selected based on the lowest cross validation errors (SECV). The coefficient of determination in calibration (R (2) ) and SECV were 0.93 and 3.9 g kg(-1) dry matter (DM); 0.85 and 5.7 g kg(-1) DM; 0.92 and 3.7 g kg(-1) DM; 0.91 and 4.7 g kg(-1) DM; 0.88 and 6.7 g kg(-1) DM; 0.94 and 1.8 g kg(-1) DM; for M, CP, oil, ash, TVN and NaCl, respectively. It was concluded that NIRS can be used as a method to monitor the quality of fishmeal under industrial conditions.