Simultaneous Determination of Caffeine and Taurine in Energy Drinks by FT-MIR Spectroscopy Coupled with Multivariate Analysis

Energy drinks have been studied due to their damaging side effects on the health of their consumers when consumed in excess or when combined with alcohol. Our objective was to develop chemometric models, based on Fourier-transform mid-infrared (FT-MIR) spectroscopy, to quantify the taurine and caffeine content in energy drinks rapidly and simultaneously. The taurine and caffeine content in the 50 samples ranged between 0 and 69.51 mg/100 mL and 14.92 and 1126.17 mg/100 mL, respectively. The best prediction model was obtained with the partial least squares (PLS1) algorithm; for taurine, the following values were obtained: determination coefficient of calibration (Rc2) = 0.9999, standard error of calibration (SEC) = 0.15, determination coefficient of validation (Rv2) = 0.9997, and standard error of prediction (SEP) = 0.16; for caffeine, Rc2 = 0.9999, SEC = 0.26, Rv2 = 0.9999, and SEP = 0.32. The model developed with PLS1 showed certainty in predictions during the validation stage and during application to external samples. FT-MIR coupled to chemometrics is a reliable and fast technique (compared to conventional techniques) to quantify taurine and caffeine in energy drinks simultaneously.