Application of Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy

Aqua Feeds: Formulation & Beyond Volume 1, Issue 2, 2004
Title:	Application of Near Infra-Red Spectroscopy (NIRS) to Manage the Nutritional Quality of Aquafeed Ingredients
Section:	Quality, pages 28-30
Author & Affiliation:	Dr. Robert van Barneveld Barneveld Nutrition Pty Ltd and the BECAN Consulting Group Queensland Australia
E-mail:	rob@barneveld.com.au

Web Summary

Cost-effective use of feed ingredients is fundamental to the profitability of any livestock industry, including the aquaculture sector. To effectively utilize limited feed resources, it is essential that we identify those factors that can influence ingredient quality and develop techniques for the assessment of the ingredients prior to inclusion in compound feeds. To date, our ability to achieve this has been restricted. Measurement or prediction of chemical composition of feed ingredients, and/or book values based on in vivo measurements were the only means available to feed manufacturers. Given the variation that exists in the nutritional and physical quality of feed ingredients, these approaches are far from adequate. Alternative techniques for the rapid assessment of nutritional quality must be identified.

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) represents a rapid, cost-effective, repeatable and accurate means of assessing the nutritional quality of feed ingredients and, in some cases, complete feeds. The procedure is based on the fact that when exposed to specific wavelengths of infrared light, components within a foodstuff, such as protein, moisture, starch and oil, have characteristic NIR absorption bands (Figure 1). Using this principle, calibrations between characteristic NIR spectra and nutritional quality for any ingredient can be developed.

The application of NIRS for the assessment of the nutritional quality of feed ingredients for aquaculture species is not as advanced as it is for pigs and poultry. This is due to the fact that we have less nutritional knowledge about aquatic animal species, and there are other factors that must be considered when producing many aquatic feeds such as water stability and binding capacity.

The aim of this paper is to identify where the greatest gains are to made through the application of NIRS in aquafeed production and to highlight some recent developments in the application of NIRS that may be improve the production of aquafeed.

Full Paper

Download the paper in PDF format.