This paper describes the potentiality of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR)
spectroscopy associated to chemometric analysis for assessment of conventional and
genetically modified soybean crops. Recently, genetically modified organisms have been
queried about their influence on the environment and their safety as food/feed. In this
regard, chemical investigations are ever more required. Thus three different soybean
cultivars distributed in transgenic Roundup Ready
TM
soybean and theirs conventional
counterparts were directly investigated by FT-IR spectroscopy and chemometric analysis.
The application of PCA and KNN methods permitted the discrimination and classification
of the genetically modified samples from conventional ones when they were separately
analysed. The analyses showed the chemical variation according to genetic modification.
Furthermore, this methodology was efficient for cultivar grouping and highlights cultivar
dependence for discrimination between transgenic and non-transgenic samples.
According to this study, FT-IR and chemometrics could be used as a quick, easy and low
cost tool to assess the chemical composition variation in genetically modified organisms.
