Work

Discriminating the adulteration of varieties and misrepresentation of vintages of Pu’er tea based on Fourier transform near infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: In the Pu'er tea market, the ubiquity of blending different varieties and the fraudulent representation of vintage years present a persistent challenge. Traditional sensory evaluation and experience are often inadequate for discerning the true variety and vintage of tea, highlighting the need for more sophisticated analytical methods to ensure authenticity and quality. Fourier transform near infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy combined with radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) was applied for determination of the varieties and vintages of Pu'er tea. For vintage identification, the accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-score of the RBFNN model for the prediction set were 99.2%, 98.2%, 98.0%, and 98.0%, respectively. For identification of varieties adulteration, the corresponding parameters were 98.9%, 97.2%, 96.7%, and 96.6%, respectively. These results illustrated the feasibility to identify the adulteration of varieties and misrepresentation of vintages of Pu'er tea with near infrared spectra and RBFNN model, proving an efficient alternative for Pu'er tea quality inspection, and offering a robust method for combating the pervasive issues within the market.

Source: Frontiers in Chemistry

DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2025.1546702

Authors: Zhenfa Yang, Xiaoping Lu, Lucheng Chen

Institution: Shandong University

Language: English

Topic: Spectroscopy and Chemometric Analyses

Subfield: Analytical Chemistry

Field: Chemistry

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Zero hunger

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,801