Work

Rapid viral detection in milk using near infrared spectroscopy combined with Swiss knife partial least squares (SKPLS) 3-way multiblock

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Human norovirus is the leading cause of foodborne illnesses, necessitating rapid, reliable, and cost-effective quantification methods. Near InfraRed Spectroscopy (NIRS) offers real-time analysis with minimal sample preparation. Two independent experiments, conducted 8 months apart in quadruplicate, produced 360 semi-skimmed milk measurement spiked with nine MS2 bacteriophage concentrations, a surrogate of human norovirus. Virus concentrations were modeled by 3-way partial least squares (PLS) regression correlating NIRS spectra with plaque-forming unit (PFU) measurements. A group-aware 5-fold cross-validation was applied to 72 sample groups using spectral pretreatments. The best performance was achieved with the extended multiplicative scatter correction (EMSC) and first derivative, yielding an R 2 of 0.77 and 0.80 for validation. The limit of quantification (LOQ) was estimated at 4.9 × 10 3 PFU/mL, close to literature values for virus quantification in complex matrices. These results highlight the feasibility of NIRS as a rapid, non-destructive, and reagent-free approach for viral quantification in food systems. • A novel NIR spectroscopy method enables real-time viral detection without extraction. • Two independent experiments, 8 months apart, confirm the method's high reproducibility. • 3-way multiblock PLS allowed joint modeling of two experiments for improved robustness. • A quantification limit of 4.9 × 10 3 PFU/mL was achieved, close to RT-PCR detection ranges.

Source: Food Chemistry

DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2025.147336