Search

Background and Objectives: Quality assessment of bread wheat is time‐consuming and requires the determination of many complex characteristics. Because of its simplicity, protein content prediction using near‐infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) serves as the primary quality attribute in wheat trade. To enable the prediction of more complex traits, information from Raman and fluorescence spectra is added to the NIR spectra of whole grain and extracted flour. Model robustness is assessed by predictions across cultivars, locations, and years. The prediction error is corrected for the measurement error of the reference methods. Findings: Successful prediction, robustness testing, and measurement error correction were achieved for several parameters. Predicting loaf volume yielded a corrected prediction error RMSECV of 27.5 mL/100 g flour and an R² of 0.86. However, model robustness was limited due to data distribution, environmental factors, and temporal influences. Conclusions: The proposed method was proven to be suitable for applications in the wheat value chain. Furthermore, the study provides valuable insights for practical implementations. Significance and Novelty: With up to 1200 wheat samples, this is the largest study on predicting complex characteristics comprising agronomic traits; dough rheological parameters measured by Extensograph, micro‐doughLAB, and GlutoPeak; baking trial parameters like loaf volume; and specific ingredients, such as grain protein content, sugars, and minerals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online fluorescence monitoring has become a key technology in modern bioprocess development, as it provides in‐depth process knowledge at comparably low costs. In particular, the technology is widely established for high‐throughput microbioreactor cultivation systems, due to its noninvasive character. For microtiter plates, previously also multi‐wavelength 2D fluorescence monitoring was developed. To overcome an observed limitation of fluorescence sensitivity, this study presents a modified spectroscopic setup, including a tunable emission monochromator. The new optical component enables the separation of the scattered and fluorescent light measurements, which allows for the adjustment of integration times of the charge‐coupled device detector. The resulting increased fluorescence sensitivity positively affected the performance of principal component analysis for spectral data of Escherichia coli batch cultivation experiments with varying sorbitol concentration supplementation. In direct comparison with spectral data recorded at short integration times, more biologically consistent signal dynamics were calculated. Furthermore, during partial least square regression for E. coli cultivation experiments with varying glucose concentrations, improved modeling performance was observed. Especially, for the growth‐uncoupled acetate concentration, a considerable improvement of the root‐mean‐square error from 0.25 to 0.17 g/L was achieved. In conclusion, the modified setup represents another important step in advancing 2D fluorescence monitoring in microtiter plates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]