Chemometric Tools for NIRS and NIR Hyperspectral Imaging

Nowadays in agriculture, new analytical tools based on spectroscopic technologies are developed. Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) is a well known technology in the agricultural sector allowing the acquisition of chemical information from the samples with a large number of advantages, such as: easy to use tool, fast and simultaneous analysis of several components, non-polluting, noninvasive and non destructive technology, and possibility of online or field implementation. Recently, NIRS system was combined with imaging technologies creating the Near Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging system (NIR-HSI). This technology provides simultaneously spectral and spatial information from an object. The main differences between NIR-HSI and NIRS is that many spectra can be recorded simultaneously from a large area of an object with the former while with NIRS only one spectrum was recorded for analysis on a small area. In this work, both technologies are presented with special focus on the main spectrum and images analysis methods. Several qualitative and quantitative applications of NIRS and NIR-HSI in agricultural products are listed. Developments of NIRS and NIR-HSI will enhance progress in the field of agriculture by providing high quality and safe agricultural products, better plant and grain selection techniques or compound feed industry’s productivity among others.