Chemometrics in food science and technology: A bibliometric study

Chemometrics has been defined as the discipline that provides maximum information from chemical data. Food science and technology applications use chemical data and are therefore suitable for chemometrics evaluation. Bibliometric studies provide an enhanced understanding of the progression, research status as well as future trends of a research field. The main aim of the study was therefore, to provide a bibliometric evaluation of the research literature employing chemometrics techniques in food science and technology applications. For this, a search strategy including the single term chemometric∗ was performed. The metadata obtained from the bibliometric search was subsequently analyzed. Indicators of the scientific productivity and quality such as the number of articles, citations, or funding activity, were obtained in combination with the most relevant keywords, authors, and countries. The progression over time of the bibliometric indicators was also presented and discussed. Chemometrics appeared as a prolific and healthy research field with increased funding received in the last decade. PCA, PLS and DA are still the preferred methods for most applications. A big part of the research is related to the combined use of spectroscopy and chemometrics. Finally, China and Brazil appeared as the leading countries in applying chemometrics to foodstuffs.