Analysis of Argan Oil Adulteration Using Infrared Spectroscopy

The determination of argan oil adulteration by other vegetable oils is a real analytical challenge. The authentication of argan oil needs fast and simple analytical techniques for quality control and testing. This study focuses on the detection and quantification of argan oil adulteration with different edible oils, using midinfrared spectroscopy with chemometrics. Chemometric treatment of MIR spectra has been assessed for the classification and quantification of argan oil adulteration with sunflower or soybean oils. The potential of MID spectroscopy combined with partial least squares regression (PLS) as a rapid analytical technique for the quantitative determination of adulterants in argan oil has been demonstrated. A PLS model has been established to predict the concentration of soybean and sunflower oil as adulterants in the calibration range between 0% and 30% (w/w) in argan oil with good prediction performances in the external validation.