Spectrophotometric Qualification of Italian Pasta Produced by Traditional or Industrial Production Parameters

Wheat durum pasta represents one of the most typical Italian food products. Many factories realize different class products regarding the use of organic wheat or not and the application of traditional or industrial production parameters. Being not subordinate to regulations, these classifications are only indicative of the real processes representing different quantitative levels for the same class. Aim of this study is to set up a rapid and nondestructive method to distinguish between different declared production parameters of pasta brands (spaghetti) such as industrial (high temperature, short-time drying, Teflon drawn) and traditional (low temperature, long-time drying, bronze drawn) processes and the use of organic wheat or not. A hyperspectral system operating within visible and near-infrared spectra was used to acquire images of spaghetti bundles (of two different years). Hyperspectral information was statistically analyzed by multivariate provisional soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA). The results report a percentage of correct classification equal to 75.3 % for the first year and to 73.9 % for the second year. For both sampling years, all the traditional brands are the most distant from the origin (i.e., full industrial model). The Spearman's cross-correlation test performed on the SIMCA distances indicates a statistically significant correlation between the 2 years of analysis confirming the system repeatability. The results demonstrate that the differentiation of pasta does not depend only on the raw material (i.e., organic and not) but also on the times and types of processing (i.e., short- and long-time drying, bronze or Teflon wire drawing).