~ 1388 ~ The Pharma Innovation Journal 2021; 10(10): 1388-1391 ISSN (E): 2277- 7695 ISSN (P): 2349-8242 NAAS Rating: 5.23 TPI 2021; 10(10): 1388-1391 © 2021 TPI www.thepharmajournal.com Received: 07-07-2021 Accepted: 16-08-2021 Aluru Madhuri Department of Food Safety and Quality Testing Laboratory, Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India Suman Thamburaj Department of Food Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India R Jaganmohan Department of Food Product Development, Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India Dr. R Vidyalakshmi Professor and Head, Department of Food Safety and Quality Testing Laboratory, Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India Corresponding Author: Dr. R Vidyalakshmi Professor and Head, Department of Food Safety and Quality Testing Laboratory, Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India ATR-FTIR spectroscopy for adulteration detection of corn flour in cassava flour Aluru Madhuri, Suman Thamburaj, R Jaganmohan and Dr. R Vidyalakshmi Abstract Corn flour which acts as a major adulterant in cassava flour during the manufacturing of tapioca (cassava) sago plays a major role in effecting the farmers economically. Nutritionally, there is a considerable difference between cassava and corn flour. Even though, there are some available microscopic methods to detect adulteration of different flours, ATR-FTIR was recognized as a beneficial tool for detecting adulteration of corn flour in cassava flour. Cassava flour, Cornflour, and different percentages of spiked cassava flours (10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%) were subjected to proximate in parallel with FT-IR spectroscopy. The spectroscopy results showed that Cassava flour was detected from corn flour by the nearly disappearing of specific bands at 1743.65 cm -1 , 1643.35 cm -1 , 1544.98 cm -1 which are present in corn flour. On increasing the adulteration, the intensity of peaks at these specific bands was kept on increasing. As FTIR is a fast and non-destructive technique, it can be employed in finding adulteration of tapioca sago. Keywords: Corn flour, cassava flour, FTIR, adulteration 1. Introduction Adulteration is the biggest problem facing the entire world. It affects different people in different ways i.e., Farmers and dealers in the economic aspect, consumers in the health aspect, etc. (Banti, 2020) [3] It is being observed in each commodity including “Tapioca Sago” Tapioca sago is produced from the roots of cassava. Depending on the region, the name of this crop varies, mandioca or manioca (Brazil), cassada or cassava (Africa and Southeast Asia), tapioca (India and Malaysia), yucca (Central America) (Agbemafle, 2019) [1] . Nearly 2.7 lakh hectares area of land in India is being cultivated with cassava and the production is 71 lakh tonnes. Cassava yields an average of 22 tonnes per hectare. It has the highest starch content (25 to 35%) and is mostly processed for starch and sago. Tamil Nādu is the leading producer, processor, and exporter of cassava in India followed by Kerala, Andhra Pradesh. (Periyasamy, 2021) [14] (Chennakrishnan et al., 2020) [5] . A mixture of gelatinized and ungelatinized starch created by heat-moisture treatment forms the spherical pearls. To make tapioca pearls, the starch is wetted until it reaches a moisture content of 50%. Continuous mechanical shaking disintegrates the wet starch and forms spherical particles. Dry heat drying or roasting at 250-300 °C is then applied to the particles. (Immawan et al. 2018) [10] . To decrease the moisture content of finished products, the pearls are cooled before being exposed to a second drying phase at a lower temperature (50-80 °C). From the newspaper’s reviews, in the past five years, many complaints were raised by the farmers regarding the adulteration of cassava flour during the manufacturing of sago. Sago manufacturing industries importing cheap quality corn grits and corn flour from other countries for usage as an adulterant in sago due to its high starch content. Due to this adulteration, it is reported that nearly 50% cost per tonne of sago is being reduced which is affecting the farmers economically. There is a need to find a solution to prevent this. So far, many microscopic methods are available for the detection of adulterants in flours. In the present research, a method has been developed by using a spectroscopic method called Fourier Transform Infra-red (FTIR). FTIR is a spectroscopic technique widely used to characterize food ingredients and to detect possible food adulterants based on their unique spectral fingerprints (Valand et al., 2020) [18] .