Geochemical caper fingerprints as a tool for geographical origin identification

Abstract

The identification of geographical origin of food products is important for both consumers and producers to ensure quality and avoid label falsifications. The caper plant (Capparis spinosa L., Brassicales Capparidaceae), a xerophytic shrub common in the Mediterranean area, produces buds and fruits that are commercialized in brine at high price. Those grown in Italy in the Aeolian Islands are renowned for their high quality. This study is aimed to establish a correlation between the geological and geochemical features of soil and the chemical composition of caper buds grown in two Aeolian Islands, Lipari and Salina. Major and trace elements were investigated by X-ray fluorescence and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry in soil and caper samples from three localities in Lipari and Salina, and data from the three sites were compared by a nonparametric test, a correlation test and multivariate statistics (principal component analysis). The results allowed to discriminate soils according to geolithological characteristics of each area and detect a statistically significant correspondence between soil and caper samples for the elements Co, Fe, Mg and Rb, identifying thus possible geochemical caper fingerprints of origin. These results may also be useful to protect the high quality of Aeolian caper products by a suitable "Made in Italy" trademark and avoid falsifications and frauds.

Fatty Acids-Based Quality Index to Differentiate Worldwide Commercial Pistachio Cultivars

“…These chromatographic fingerprints have already been recognized as powerful tools for identifying, classifying, and recognizing samples. This approach has been used in several application fields, such as the classification, detection of adulteration [15,16,17,18,19,20,21,34], food authentication, and the identification of the geographical origin of the food products [15,35].…”

Bromatological, analytical and chemometric assessment of animal and plant foods based on mineral composition

“…Different types of vegetables originated from various geographical regions were studied in accordance of chemometric evaluation of chemical elements concentration, namely potato [146][147][148][149][150][151][152], tomato [153][154][155], cabbage [156--157], broccoli [158], caper [159,160], carrot [161,162], onion [163][164][165][166][167][168][169], garlic [170][171][172], beetroot [173], pea, bean, faba bean [164,[174][175], lentil [176], parsley, carrot, onion, carrot, cabbage, lettuce, cucumber, green bean [177], parsley [178], paprika [179], chili pepper [180], Sechium edule fruits [181], Caigua [182], Taro [183] and sea cucumber [184]. Twenty five different kinds of commercially available fresh and processed vegetables and 5 kinds of leguminous vegetables purchased from the local market in Poland originated from 4 different countries and other EU countries were investigated and assessed by Grembecka [8] and Grembecka et al [185].…”

Use of mineral multi‐elemental analysis to authenticate geographical origin of different cultivars of tea in Guizhou, China

“…Increasingly, studies considering the geographic traceability of food have emerged. They have been concerned with ascertaining the geographical origin of food based on its characteristic chemical composition, using different analytical technologies, such as the electronic nose, stable isotopic ratios, mineral multi‐elemental fingerprints, high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and the carbon and nitrogen isotope composition of fatty acids and amino acids . Tea, a frequently consumed beverage with a characteristic fragrance and flavor, and with refreshing and medicinal qualities, is processed from the young leaf and / or the bud of the tea plant ( Camellia sinensis (L.) O.…”