The use of ever smaller near-infrared instruments is becoming more and more prevalent, since they are cheaper, more versatile and often advertised as high-performance spectrometer. The last claim is rarely verified by independent researchers, which is why the presented work evaluates the performance of three hand-held spectrometers in comparison to a benchtop instrument. Seventy-seven samples comprising buckwheat, millet and oat were investigated for their total antioxidant capacity using Folin–Ciocalteu and near-infrared spectroscopy. Partial least squares regression models were established using cross- and test set validation. Results showed that all instruments were able to predict total antioxidant capacity to some extent. The coefficients of determinations ranged from 0.823 to 0.951 for cross-validated and from 0.849 to 0.952 for test set validated models. Errors for cross-validated models ranged from 1.11 to 2.08 mgGAE/g and for test set validated models from 1.02 to 1.86 mgGAE/g.
