Abstract: Quality control for feather and down depends mainly on the category and peculiar smell of feather and down. To establish a quick and exact identification for the feather and down category, Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy technology was employed for goose feather and duck feather, goose down and ducks down. Though analyzing the near-infrared diffuse reflection spectrum, the recognition model of feather and down category was set up. At the same time, extracts from the different feather and down were measured by using the Gas chromatography-mass (GC-MS) spectroscopy analysis. The NIR results have shown that the mean spectrum of goose down and duck down was in the 4000 to 12000 cm-1 NIR range, particularly in 8700–8100 cm-1, 7500–6000 cm-1 and 5600–6000 cm-1 region. The similar reflectance further clarified that the downs include the common major chemical components, such as proteins. By normalized and second-derivative treatments, three-D principal component score plot demonstrated that all four feather and down were distinguished because of their chemical and structural difference. These results suggested the feasibility of using near infrared spectroscopy for the identification of the feather and down category. In addition, GC-MS detection indicated that Carboxylic acids and Lactones are main components in the extracts. These data might be helpful to analyze and identify some volatile odor components. This study might provide some new clues for further investigation about down odor ingredients and gas sensor's selection.

Key words: down, component analysis, NIR, GC-MS