Ketty, G. S. L., Roosnoor, F. H., and Faridah, I.
Edible bird’s nest (EBN) refers to the nest which were produced by several different Swiftlet or Collocalia (Apodidae) species. The EBN is woven from gelatinous strands of its saliva mixed with minor feathers. The Chinese had been consuming these EBN since the Tang (618?907 AD) and Sung (960?1279
AD) dynasties as a symbol of wealth, power, prestige as well as traditional Chinese medicine. EBN is so expensive that sometimes fake or adulterated EBN is sold on the market. The common adulterants present in EBN are karaya gum, red seaweed, Tremella fungus, vermicelli rice, cellophane noodles, jelly or animal skin. Therefore, purity testing in EBN is very important to prevent the consumers from being cheated as well as to keep genuine quality of Malaysian EBN. Formerly, the empirical methods in determining pure EBN were via visual examination, burning tests, smell sensory testing, and colouring checks. Nowadays, they were determined by the protein and sialic acid contents. Although they are quite reliable, but they are time consuming, require expensive instruments and very experience technician. Handheld Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) system can be used equally in the laboratory and at the field. The system is as versatile as it is rugged and features a choice of interchangeable sampling interfaces that make it a highly useful handheld mid-IR spectrometer. The sampling interfaces can be interchange either with diffuse, grazing angle, specular reflection or spherical attenuated total reflectance (ATR) sampling interfaces. ln the field or in the laboratory, the handheld FTIR is used to make valuable measurements on the spot, with no sample preparation (Agilent Technologies). The resulting spectrum represents the molecular absorption and transmission, creating a molecular fingerprint of the sample. Like a fingerprint, no two unique molecular structures produce the same infrared spectrum.