Determination of Phospholipids in Infant Formula Using Infrared Spectroscopy and Chemometric Data Analysis

Infant formula is an alternative to breast milk for newborns when breastfeeding is not possible for any reason. This study examines vibrational spectroscopic methods, namely near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy (ATR-IR) in the mid-infrared region, for the determination of phospholipids in infant nutrition products. Chemometric methods were applied for processing the spectroscopic data, including principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares regression (PLS). PCA demonstrated clustering of samples into groups according to their phospholipid content. Using PLS models based on ATR-IR and NIR spectra, it is possible to determine major classes of phospholipids with sufficient accuracy, including phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, and sphingomyelin, as well as total phosphorus content (coefficients of determination R² greater than 0.94 and 0.96 for ATR-IR and NIR data, respectively; mean squared prediction error less than 0.14% for both methods). Spectroscopic methods combined with chemometric approaches represent an effective tool for quality control of infant nutrition products.