Abstract

The results of this work show that it is possible to rapidly quantify calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium and sodium in unknown cheeses elaborated with percentages (0-100%) of milk from different species (cow, ewe, goat) by direct application of the fibre-optic probe on the sample without previous destruction or treatment of the sample. Of the total number of samples, 170 were used to develop the calibration models using the Modified Partial Least Squares (MPLS) regression method and 57 samples were used for external validation. The multiple correlation coefficients (RSQ) and prediction corrected standard errors (SEP (C)) obtained for calcium (0.74, 0.64), phosphorus (0.69, 0.29), potassium (0.86, 0.13), and sodium (0.92, 0.71) in g/kg respectively and magnesium (0.72, 30.9) in ppm, indicated that the models developed allow the determination of Ca, P, K, Na and Mg in unknown samples of cheeses of varying compositions up to 6 months of ripening. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.