FTIR spectroscopy for quality evaluation of sports supplements on the Polish market

Introduction. Our study aimed to apply medium infrared (MIR/FTIR) spectroscopy to evaluate the quality of various sports supplements available in the Polish shops and gyms. Study objects and methods. The study objects included forty-eight sports supplements: whey (15 samples), branched-chain amino acids (12 samples), creatine (3 samples), mass gainers (6 samples), and pre-workouts (12 samples). First, we determined the protein quantity in individual whey supplements by the Kjeldahl method and then correlated the results with the measured FTIR spectra by chemometric methods. The principal component analysis (PCA) was used to distinguish the samples based on the measured spectra. The samples were grouped according to their chemical composition. Further, we correlated the spectra with the protein contents using the partial least squares (PLS) regression method and mathematic transformations of the FTIR spectral data. Results and discussion. The analysis of the regression models confirmed that we could use FTIR spectra to estimate the content of proteins in protein supplements. The best result was obtained in a spectrum region between 1160 and 2205 cm–1 and after the standard normal variate normalization. R2 for the calibration and validation models reached 0.85 and 0.76, respectively, meaning that the models had a good capability to predict protein content in whey supplements. The RMSE for the calibration and validation models was low (2.7% and 3.7%, respectively). Conclusion. Finally, we proved that the FTIR spectra applied together with the chemometric analysis could be used to quickly evaluate the studied products.