The combination of Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and machine learning gives a promising result in wheat variety classification. This study aimed to evaluate the contributions of distinct spectral regions and their combinations to classification performance. Out of the full raw spectra of four bread wheat varieties, namely Altindane, Cavus, Flamura-85, and Nevzatbey, 15 spectral datasets were prepared. Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Support Vector Machines (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) models were trained and analyzed. The highest classification performance was obtained using spectral regions associated with protein and lipid bands. The highest average accuracy of 0.9895 was shown by the SVM model, while the ANN produced comparable results with lower variability. Additionally, Variable Importance in Projection (VIP) analysis identified the most influential spectral bands in the protein (Amide II, ~1542 cm−1) and carbonyl (1744–1715 cm−1) regions. These findings indicate that classification is driven by chemically meaningful features rather than purely statistical patterns. The approach followed in this study provides an insight that, in FTIR-based classification, when rigorously evaluated using nested cross-validation, spectral region selection can outweigh model complexity. This approach demonstrates strong potential for rapid and non-destructive assessment, especially for real-time applications in grain processing and automated sorting systems.
Mengstu et al. (Tue,) studied this question.