Shrimp is processed into culinary powder in many countries. Only the abdomen of mature shrimp should be included. It can be adulterated with the thorax (head), other shrimp parts (including hazardous sharps), or illegally caught immature shrimps.
Researchers from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, have published (link – purchase required) a study demonstrating the use of handheld near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) to detect adulteration. They developed models using tandem chemometrics and multiple spectral preprocessing with linear discriminant analysis. They classified shrimp powder adulterated with milled immature shrimps at 0, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 100% w/w with an average cross-validation accuracy of 93%, and achieved an accuracy of 98% for equivalent classification of milled shrimp head in shrimp powder. They used the model in the field for some preliminary surveillance testing and confirmed suspected shrimp powder adulteration in Ghanaian markets.
Photo by Indivar Kaushik on Unsplash
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