Validation of chemometric models for the determination of deoxynivalenol on maize by mid-infrared spectroscopy

Validation methods for chemometric models are presented, which are a necessity for the evaluation of model performance and prediction ability. Reference methods with known performance can be employed for comparison studies. Other validation methods include test set and cross validation, where some samples are set aside for testing purposes. The choice of the testing method mainly depends on the size of the original dataset. Test set validation is suitable for large datasets (>50), whereas cross validation is the best method for medium to small datasets (<50). In this study the K-nearest neighbour algorithm (KNN) was used as a reference method for the classification of contaminated and blank corn samples. A Partial least squares (PLS) regression model was evaluated using full cross validation. Mid-Infrared spectra were collected using the attenuated total reflection (ATR) technique and the fingerprint range (800–1800 cm−1) of 21 maize samples that were contaminated with 300 – 2600 µg/kg deoxynivalenol (DON) was investigated. Separation efficiency after principal component analysis/cluster analysis (PCA/CA) classification was 100%. Cross validation of the PLS model revealed a correlation coefficient of r=0.9926 with a root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC) of 95.01. Validation results gave an r=0.8111 and a root mean square error of cross validation (RMSECV) of 494.5 was calculated. No outliers were reported.