This chapter presents the fundamentals, characteristics, configuration, terminologies, merits and demerits, limits, and potentials of hyperspectral imaging. It presents the basics and theoretical aspects relating to this technique, the information that can be supplied, and the main features of the instrumentation. It provides an overview of the main steps involved in analyzing hyperspectral images. It explains in detail the potential applications of hyperspectral imaging in food analysis. Hyperspectral imaging is a complex, highly multidisciplinary field that can be defined as the simultaneous acquisition of spatial images in many spectrally contiguous bands. Each pixel in the hyperspectral image contains a complete spectrum. Therefore, hyperspectral imaging is a very powerful technique for characterizing and analyzing biological and food samples. The strong driving force behind the development of hyperspectral imaging systems in food quality evaluation is the integration of spectroscopic and imaging techniques for discovering hidden information nondestructively for direct identification of different components and their spatial distribution in food samples. As a result, hyperspectral imaging represents a major technological advance in the capturing of morphological and chemical information from food and food products.

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