Table 1.

Advantage and drawbacks of non-destructive spectroscopic techniques for fat quality assessment.

Technique	Advantages	Drawbacks
IR	Low instrument cost No special skills are required for operation Provides multicomponent information	Requires complex data analysis Prediction success depends on reliability of reference method No spatial information
Raman	Simple to operate Provides spectral information Provides multicomponent information Sensible to minor component detection	Not suitable for materials that emit strong fluorescence Require complex data analysis Strong interfering with biological fluorescence background signals Laser heat could affect the effectiveness of assessments
NMR	Presence of spatial information Provides multicomponent information Fat quality information can be obtained in vivo	Highly expensive equipment Strict testing environment Requires specific skills to interpret the spectra Insensitive to minor fat component detection
HSI	Provides spatial and spectral information that shows component distribution Provides multicomponent information Sensible to minor component detection Relatively easy to operate Insensitive to minor fat component detection	Requires complex data analysis Prediction success depends on reliability of the reference method High instrument cost Redundancy of information in the hypercube Requires time and skills to acquire the desired information from the spectral images