{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,5]],"date-time":"2026-09-05T06:34:38Z","timestamp":1788590078165,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":42,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,18]],"date-time":"2026-02-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1771372800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Center for Research and Creation (CIC) of the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Adulteration of milk powder (MP) is performed, especially in underdeveloped countries, by adding corn starch (CS) or wheat flour (WF) without mentioning it. Multiple techniques have been established to reduce these deceptive methods. Most of these techniques require samples to be sent to the laboratory for results through a time-consuming, expert-requiring, and destructive procedure. Raman spectroscopy (RS) has seen application due to the availability of portable modalities and its non-destructive, water-insensitive nature. Using principal component analysis (PCA), the differences and similarities between MP and the adulterants (CS and WF) have been evaluated. To quantify the percentages of CS and WF binary mixtures independently with MP, partial least squares regression (PLSR) has been employed. A total of 70 MP samples independently adulterated with CS and WF were prepared. Thirteen chemometric modes were developed by combining the first and second derivatives with Standard Normal Variate (SNV) and Multiplicative Scatter Correction (MSC) to quantify adulteration. The results obtained for CS and WF mixtures show errors of 0.76 and 0.77 %w\/w, respectively, with the optimized math pretreatment. These results demonstrate that the portable RS modality can be used as an effective technique for detecting adulterants in milk powder.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s26041304","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,18]],"date-time":"2026-02-18T07:50:30Z","timestamp":1771401030000},"page":"1304","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Detection and Quantification of Corn Starch and Wheat Flour as Adulterants in Milk Powder by Raman Spectroscopy Coupled with Chemometric Routines"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2472-5957","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Edwin R.","family":"Caballero-Agosto","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics-Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico-Arecibo, Arecibo, PR 00614, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Louang D.","family":"Cruz-Dorta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics-Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico-Arecibo, Arecibo, PR 00614, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2536-6693","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Samuel P.","family":"Hernandez-Rivera","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Chemical Sensors (CCS), Chemical Imaging and Surface Analysis Center (CISAC), Department of Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico-Mayag\u00fcez, Mayag\u00fcez, PR 00681, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5770-3706","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Leonardo C.","family":"Pacheco-Londo\u00f1o","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Chemical Sensors (CCS), Chemical Imaging and Surface Analysis Center (CISAC), Department of Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico-Mayag\u00fcez, Mayag\u00fcez, PR 00681, USA"},{"name":"Faculty of Basic and Biomedical Sciences-Barranquilla, Simon Bolivar University, Barranquilla 080002, Colombia"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6060-9596","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ricardo","family":"Infante-Castillo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Physics-Chemistry, University of Puerto Rico-Arecibo, Arecibo, PR 00614, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"R118","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1750-3841.2012.02657.x","article-title":"Development and application of a database of food ingredient fraud and economically motivated adulteration from 1980 to 2010","volume":"77","author":"Moore","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. 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