Abstract
This work purposes the characterisation of food additive polysaccharides such as starch, glucomannan and carrageenan by the use of
the information of the principal components of the FT-IR spectra in the 1200–800 cm21
wavenumber region. The application of a
PCA to this spectral region showed that several features could be obtained: (a) Separation between Glc and Gal, both monomeric and
polymeric, and identification of their characteristic wavenumbers. (b) Identification of the specific absorbance wavenumbers for
sucrose, Fru, Ara, and Man. (c) Distinction of pectic polysaccharides from the remaining carbohydrate samples. (d) Separation within
k-, i-, and l-carrageenans. These results show that the FT-IR spectroscopy in the 1200–800 cm21
wavenumber region can be a very
reliable technique for food authentication of polysaccharide-based additives and be used for a quick screening of polysaccharides used
as additives in foodstuffs