Short communication: Determination of constituent content of peanuts using near-infrared transmission spectroscopy and their relationship with taste test parameters

We developed calibrations for the constituent content of peanuts such as sucrose, NRQ (defined by ninhydrine reaction, which has a high positive correlation with total free amino acids) and glutamic acid using a commercial near infrared (NIR) transmission analyser. Calibrations for four parameters in the taste test such as aroma, sweetness, umami and overall flavour were developed as well. The results show that calibrations for each constituent demonstrate reasonable accuracy with R-2 = 0.85 and SECV = 0.67% for oil, R-2 = 0.71 and SECV = 0.33% for sucrose, R-2 = 0.63 and SECV = 0.017% for NRQ and R 2 = 0.77 and SECV = 0.014% for glutamic acid. However, the constituent composition did not demonstrate significant correlation with taste test parameters and our attempts to obtain good NIR calibrations for taste test parameters also failed.