Rapid identification of dried sea cucumber products from different geographical areas by near-infrared spectroscopy

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and principal components class analysis (PCCA) were performed on the classification of dried sea cucumber samples of the same species from four geographical areas. A set of 96 individual dried sea cucumbers (Apostichopus japonicus selenka) were analyzed and successfully differentiated into 4 classes according to the distribution of geographical areas. The result showed that the NIR spectrum (from 5?000 to 4?000 cm-1) indicated the main spectral characteristics of sea cucumbers which were affected by the different growing environmental factors. This study demonstrat that NIR is a convenient tool for fast differentiation of seafoods of animal origin from different geographical areas, such as dried sea cucumber products.