BACKGROUND Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) has been traditionally used as a foodstuff in the Andes and it has gained increasing interest in recent years owing to its high nutritional value. The potential of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for estimating chemical compounds in quinoa was studied because of the possibility of conducting direct measurement without prior sample treatment. RESULTS The use of NIRS technology with a remote reflectance fiber-optic probe for the analysis of major compounds and mineral composition of 48 quinoa samples was studied. The calibration of the NIRS instrument was conducted using modified partial least squares (MPLS) analysis. This allowed the determination of protein (16.0-20.2 g 100g⁻¹), crude fiber (1.8-3.1 g 100g⁻¹), fat (4.4-7.5 g 100g⁻¹), calcium (298.8-1164.5 mg kg⁻¹), iron (0-948.5 mg kg⁻¹) and phosphorus (2735.0-4543.3 mg kg⁻¹). The correlation coefficients (RSQ) were 0.83 for protein, 0.73 for crude fiber, 0.93 for fat; 0.60 for calcium; 0.76 for iron and 0.75 for phosphorus. The robustness of the equations obtained was verified by external validation on unknown quinoa samples. CONCLUSIONS NIRS with fiber-optic probe provides an alternative for the determination of chemical compounds of quinoa, faster and at lower cost, with results comparable with chemical methods.