Rapid authentication of intact saffron stigma thorough the package using Vis-SWNIR hyperspectral imaging coupled with chemometrics

This study presents a rapid method for detecting and authenticating intact saffron stigma through its packaging using visible-short wavelength near-infrared (Vis-SWNIR) hyperspectral imaging (HSI) in conjunction with chemometrics. A dataset containing 38 authentic saffron samples was utilized, and HSI images were captured within the spectral range of 400–950 nm. Multivariate curve resolution-alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) was used to obtain pure spatial and spectral profiles of the components. The resolved spatial profiles were then subjected to principal component analysis (PCA) to identify potential patterns in the authentic samples. Binary mixtures of pooled saffron samples and adulterants, including safflower, calendula, and saffron style, were prepared at varying levels. Data-driven soft independent modeling of class analogy (DD-SIMCA) was employed to establish a boundary between authentic and adulterated samples, resulting in robust classification performance with a sensitivity of 95 % and specificity of 100 %. Partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was used for binary and multi-class classification of the MCR-ALS resolved spatial profiles. The performance of PLS-DA was evaluated using sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy measures, which exceeded 83.4 % for the calibration, cross-validation, and prediction sets across three different saffron packaging methods. These findings provide further evidence for the validity and efficacy of the proposed method.