In Italy, buffalo mozzarella is a largely sold and consumed dairy product. The
fraudulent adulteration of buffalo milk with cheaper and more available milk of
other species is very frequent. In the present study, Fourier transform infrared
spectroscopy (FTIR), in combination with multivariate analysis by partial least
square (PLS) regression, was applied to quantitatively detect the adulteration
of buffalo milk with cow milk by using a fully automatic equipment dedicated to
the routine analysis of the milk composition. To enhance the heterogeneity, cow
and buffalo bulk milk was collected for a period of over three years from
different dairy farms. A total of 119 samples were used for the analysis to
generate 17 different concentrations of buffalo-cow milk mixtures. This
procedure was used to enhance variability and to properly randomize the trials.
The obtained calibration model showed an
R
2
≥
0.99 (
R
2
cal. = 0.99861; root mean square error of
cross-validation [RMSEC] = 2.04;
R
2
val. = 0.99803;
root mean square error of prediction [RMSEP] = 2.84; root mean square error of
cross-validation [RMSECV] = 2.44) suggesting that this method could be
successfully applied in the routine analysis of buffalo milk composition,
providing rapid screening for possible adulteration with cow’s milk at no
additional cost.