Rice is a staple food in Vietnam, and the concern about rice is much greater than that for other foods. Preventing fraud against this product has become increasingly important in order to protect producers and consumers from possible economic losses. The possible adulteration of this product is done by mixing, or even replacing, high-quality rice with cheaper rice. This highlights the need for analytical methodologies suitable for its authentication. Given this scenario, the present work aims at testing a rapid and non-destructive approach to detect adulterated rice samples. To fulfill this purpose, 200 rice samples (72 authentic and 128 adulterated samples) were analyzed by near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy coupled, with partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and soft independent modeling of class analogies (SIMCA). The two approaches provided different results; while PLS-DA analysis was a suitable approach for the purpose of the work, SIMCA was unable to solve the investigated problem. The PLS-DA approach provided satisfactory results in discriminating authentic and adulterated samples (both 5% and 10% counterfeits). Focusing on authentic and 10%-adulterated samples, the accuracy of the approach was even better (with a total classification rate of 82.6% and 82.4%, for authentic and adulterated samples, respectively).

Microalgae is a relatively new, sustainable source of protein supplements. Among various microalgae strains, Spirulina platensis has shown an effective protein potential source compared with others. A high-performance protein recovery technology is required for this prospect. When the cellulase enzyme supported the recovery process, the condition to get the highest protein recovery efficiency (40.13±2.87%) were 50 UI/g dry algae for enzyme activity, 1:20 for the ratio of dry algae: solvent, 7.0 for pH value with a process temperature of 50oC for 90 minutes. This study succeeded in using cellulase enzymes to support protein extraction with high recovery efficiency from Spirulina platensis grown in Vietnam, opening up an additional source of protein in the trend of plant-based meat production.