Rapid analysis of protein content in rice noodles using NIR and FTIR spectroscopy for quality control of river snail rice noodle products

River snail rice noodles (luosifen) have become a popular food trend in China, with rice noodles being the main component affecting the texture and taste. Accurately measuring the protein content in rice noodles is essential for assessing quality and nutritional value, as well as ensuring compliance with regulations. This study developed and validated a rapid spectroscopic method integrating near-infrared (NIR) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy with partial least squares (PLS) regression, to accurately quantify the protein levels in commercial rice noodles for river snail rice noodle products. Analysis of commercial samples revealed protein levels ranging from 1.84 to 7.85 g/100g due to varying rice-to-starch ratios. Spectral analysis identified the NIR regions around 1500 nm and 2500 nm as highly sensitive to protein changes. The FTIR amide I band (1681-1695 cm−1) was also important for protein prediction models. The PLS model using NIR spectra demonstrated superior performance with a coefficient of determination (rsq) of 0.99 for training and 0.986 for validation, compared to 0.94/0.897 for the FTIR model. This rapid NIR/FTIR spectroscopic method provides an accurate and promising alternative to traditional techniques like Kjeldahl for quality control of rice noodles in industrial river snail rice noodle production. •Rapid NIR/FTIR spectroscopic method for determining protein content in river snail rice noodles.•NIR regions at 1500/2500 nm sensitive to protein content changes.•NIR-PLS model outperformed FTIR (R2 0.99 vs 0.94) for protein content prediction.