Fast pattern recognition of malted and unmalted beer: An investigation using FTIR, UV-VIS, fluorescence spectroscopy and chemometrics

Beer production and consumption has increased worldwide during the past years. In this growing market, consumers have opted for products endowed with greater quality and diversity. In this respect, malted beers offer a more pleasant sensory experience. From a practical point of view, the high cost of production, when compared to the unmalted beer, passed on to the added value of the final product, then is common to encounter unmalted beers labeled as malted in the market. So, the characterization of beers into groups of malted and unmalted beers is of great importance for food control agencies. The present work reports a good alternative classification procedure that is fast, efficient, with no sample preparation using fluorescence spectroscopy associated with SOM (Self Organizing Map) and it is compared with the negative results (no pattern recognition) obtained with a FTIR and UV-VIS spectroscopy associated with PCA also performed with no sample preparation process.