Effects of grown origin, genotype, harvest year, and their interactions of wheat kernels on near infrared spectral fingerprints for geographical traceability

The effects of origin, genotype, harvest year, and their interactions on wheat near infrared (NIR) spectra were studied to find the reasons for differences in NIR fingerprints of wheat from different geographical origins and the stability of NIR fingerprints among different years. Ten varieties were grown in three regions of China for 2 years. 180 kernel samples were analysed by NIR. The spectra after pre-treatment were analysed by principal component analysis, multi-way analysis of variance, and discriminant partial least-squares. The results showed that origin, genotype, year, and their interactions all had significant effects on wheat NIR fingerprints. The second overtones of N–H and C–H stretching vibrations and a combination of stretch and deformation of C–H group in wheat were mainly influenced by the geographical origin. The wavelength ranges 975–990 nm, 1200 nm, and 1355–1380 nm contained plenty of origin information to build robust discriminant models of wheat geographical origin.