Chemometric techniques to protect the traditional Austrian pumpkin seed oil

Abstract

The aim of this work was to establish suitable chemometric techniques for establishing provenance of pumpkin seed and pumpkin seed oil from the regions of Austria, China and Russia, in order to protect the authentic Austrian products from fraud and mislabelling. To achieve this goal, three different chemometric approaches, projection to latent structures (PLS), soft independent modelling of class analogy (SIMCA) and support vector machines (SVM) were applied on two different trace element data sets. To evaluate the reliability of the classification achieved, the results were validated on an independent test set. PLS and SVM performed similarly in many situations. Also the prediction of the discriminating techniques was in accordance with the modelling technique SIMCA. But PLS alone can be used to separate Austrian from non‐Austrian pumpkin seed and pumpkin seed oil samples based on trace element data. Practical applications: For various reasons, more and more consumers prefer local products with a defined geographical origin. Producers also advertise the geographical origin and are trying to increase the value of their products by praising the quality of their products through a geographical designation. Unfortunately, there is an increases of abuse in these products which also comprise the ‘Styrian pumpkin seed oil PGI’ with falsely declared geographical origin. The demand for an analytical approach how to counteract the falsification of origin of Styrian pumpkin seed oil has increased considerably. The aim of this work is to establish an analytical method with suitable chemometric techniques for establishing the provenance of pumpkin seed oil from the regions of Austria, China and Russia, in order to protect the authentic Austrian products from fraud and mislabelling. PLS, SIMCA and SVM chemometric techniques are applied for establishing the provenance of pumpkin seed and pumpkin seed oil. PLS and SVM perform similarly in most situations and are in accordance with SIMCA models. However, the classification task can be solved by PLS only.

Origin Determination of Walnuts (Juglans regia L.) on a Worldwide and Regional Level by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry and Chemometrics

“…One can observe an increasing tendency where elemental concentration ratios, especially the rare earth elements (REE) among these, are considered for chemometric evaluation besides absolute concentrations [ 13 , 14 , 41 , 42 ]. In this way, the model can become more robust [ 41 ].…”

Can chemometrics protect pumpkin seed oil buyers from false Styrian PGI labels?

“…In the present study Zettl et al further expanded the previous researches by measuring other element traces besides REE and also by analyzing other Russian and Chinese pumpkin seed oils. Their aim was to therefore use chemometric methods in order to establish models that could detect fraud and mislabeling of Austrian pumpkin seed oils.…”

“…It is therefore the obligation of the scientific community to propose reliable testing methods as a part of consumer rights protection efforts. PLS model developed by Zettl et al therefore seems to be the most promising modelling technique in the differentiation of pumpkin seed oil origin and indeed a great step in the right direction to achieve this goal.…”

A tool to assure the geographical origin of local food products (glasshouse tomatoes) using labeling with rare earth elements

“…Trace and rare earth element fingerprinting, especially in combination with stable and/or radiogenic isotope signatures, has been widely used for identification of provenance of regional food products. This use of a trace element fingerprint, combined with statistical techniques such as multivariate data analysis, was successfully applied for the classification of products such as dairy products, beverages, wine, meat, vegetable oils, honey, fruit and vegetables, peas, grain, etc., according to their origin . This holds especially true for those products that have a direct relationship with the autochthonous soil, and have undergone no or little further processing.…”