An Overview on the Application of Chemometrics Tools in Food Authenticity and Traceability

Rapid and sensitive approaches for detecting food fraud: A review on prospects and challenges

Precise and reliable analytical techniques are required to guarantee food quality in light of the expanding concerns regarding food safety and quality. Because traditional procedures are expensive and time-consuming, quick food control techniques are required to ensure product quality. Various analytical techniques are used to identify and detect food fraud, including spectroscopy, chromatography, DNA barcoding, and inotrope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). Due to its quick findings, simplicity of use, high throughput, affordability, and non-destructive evaluations of numerous food matrices, NI spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging are financially preferred in the food business. The applicability of this technology has increased with the development of chemometric techniques and near-infrared spectroscopy-based instruments. The current research also discusses the use of several multivariate analytical techniques in identifying food fraud, such as principal component analysis, partial least squares, cluster analysis, multivariate curve resolutions, and artificial intelligence.

Comparison of the targeted metabolomics and nutritional quality indices of the probiotic cheese enriched with microalgae

The objective of this study is to evaluate the influence of mixed L. acidophilus LA-5 and enrichment with microalgae (C. vulgaris and A. platensis) on metabolomic formation in a brined cheese matrix. Microbiological, compositional, and metabolomic characterization were investigated during the ripening. It was found that the nutritional quality indices of the samples were based on amino acid and fatty acid characterization. Fifty-six metabolomics including fatty acids, amino acids, organic acids, minerals, and vitamins were detected using the HPLC-DAD, GC-MS, and ICP-OES-based methods. The results indicated that the enrichment with probiotic strain and microalgae led to an increase in the nutritional quality indices such as EAAI, NI, BV, MUFA/SFA, h/H, and DFA. The chemometric analysis (e.g. HCA and PCA) presented the variance between the cheese samples based on their attributes. The identification of cheese metabolomics throughout the ripening could be used for a better understanding of the functional ingredients-cheese matrix relationships and as a directive approach for novel dairy products in other metabolomic-related studies.

Advancing Mycotoxin Detection in Food and Feed: Novel Insights from Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS)

The implementation of low-cost and rapid technologies for the on-site detection of mycotoxin-contaminated crops is a promising solution to address the growing concerns of the agri-food industry. Recently, there have been significant developments in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for the direct detection of mycotoxins in food and feed. This review provides an overview of the most recent advancements in the utilization of SERS through the successful fabrication of novel nanostructured materials. Various bottom-up and top-down approaches have demonstrated their potential in improving sensitivity, while many applications exploit the immobilization of recognition elements and molecular imprinted polymers (MIPs) to enhance specificity and reproducibility in complex matrices. Therefore, the design and fabrication of nanomaterials is of utmost importance and are presented herein. This paper uncovers that limited studies establish detection limits or conduct validation using naturally contaminated samples. One decade on, SERS is still lacking significant progress and there is a disconnect between the technology, the European regulatory limits, and the intended end-user. Ongoing challenges and potential solutions are discussed including nanofabrication, molecular binders, and data analytics. Recommendations to assay design, portability, and substrate stability are made to help improve the potential and feasibility of SERS for future on-site agri-food applications.

Nondestructive Metabolomic Fingerprinting: FTIR, NIR and Raman Spectroscopy in Food Screening

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the maintenance of food quality and food safety on the basis of metabolomic fingerprinting using vibrational spectroscopy combined with multivariate chemometrics. Nontargeted spectroscopy techniques such as FTIR, NIR and Raman can provide fingerprint information for metabolomic constituents in agricultural products, natural products and foods in a high-throughput, cost-effective and rapid way. In the current review, we tried to explain the capabilities of FTIR, NIR and Raman spectroscopy techniques combined with multivariate analysis for metabolic fingerprinting and profiling. Previous contributions highlighted the considerable potential of these analytical techniques for the detection and quantification of key constituents, such as aromatic amino acids, peptides, aromatic acids, carotenoids, alcohols, terpenoids and flavonoids in the food matrices. Additionally, promising results were obtained for the identification and characterization of different microorganism species such as fungus, bacterial strains and yeasts using these techniques combined with supervised and unsupervised pattern recognition techniques. In conclusion, this review summarized the cutting-edge applications of FTIR, NIR and Raman spectroscopy techniques equipped with multivariate statistics for food analysis and foodomics in the context of metabolomic fingerprinting and profiling.

Current State of Milk, Dairy Products, Meat and Meat Products, Eggs, Fish and Fishery Products Authentication and Chemometrics

Food fraud is a matter of major concern as many foods and beverages do not follow their labelling. Because of economic interests, as well as consumers' health protection, the related topics, food adulteration, counterfeiting, substitution and inaccurate labelling, have become top issues and priorities in food safety and quality. In addition, globalized and complex food supply chains have increased rapidly and contribute to a growing problem affecting local, regional and global food systems. Animal origin food products such as milk, dairy products, meat and meat products, eggs and fish and fishery products are included in the most commonly adulterated food items. In order to prevent unfair competition and protect the rights of consumers, it is vital to detect any kind of adulteration to them. Geographical origin, production methods and farming systems, species identification, processing treatments and the detection of adulterants are among the important authenticity problems for these foods. The existence of accurate and automated analytical techniques in combination with available chemometric tools provides reliable information about adulteration and fraud. Therefore, the purpose of this review is to present the advances made through recent studies in terms of the analytical techniques and chemometric approaches that have been developed to address the authenticity issues in animal origin food products.

Raman Spectroscopy for the Quantitative Analysis of Solid Dosage Forms of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient of Febuxostat

Raman spectroscopy has been used to characterize and quantify the solid dosage forms of the commercially available drug febuxostat. For this purpose, different formulations consisting of the febuxostat (API) and excipients with different concentrations of the API are prepared and analyzed by Raman spectroscopy to identify different spectral features related to the febuxostat API and excipients. Multivariate data analysis tools such as principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least-squares regression (PLSR) analysis are used for qualitative and quantitative analyses. PCA has been found to be useful for the qualitative monitoring of various solid dosage forms. PLSR analysis has led to the successful prediction of API concentration in the unknown samples with a sensitivity and a selectivity of 98 and 99%, respectively. Moreover, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) of calibration and validation of the PLSR model has been found to be 2.9033 and 1.35, respectively. Notably, it is found to be very helpful for the comparison between the self-made formulations of febuxostat and commercially available febuxostat tablets (40 and 80 mg) of two different brands (Gouric and Zurig). These results showed that Raman spectroscopy can be a useful and reliable technique for identifying and quantifying the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in commercially available solid dosage forms.

Natural complex substances: From molecules to the molecular complexes. Analytical and technological advances for their definition and differentiation from the corresponding synthetic substances

Natural complex substances (NCSs) are a heterogeneous family of substances that are notably used as ingredients in several products classified as food supplements, medical devices, cosmetics and traditional medicines, according to the correspondent regulatory framework. The compositions of NCSs vary widely and hundreds to thousands of compounds can be present at the same time. A key concept is that NCSs are much more than the simple sum of the compounds that constitute them, in fact some emerging phenomena are the result of the supramolecular interaction of the constituents of the system. Therefore, close attention should be paid to produce and characterize these systems. Today many natural compounds are produced by chemical synthesis and are intentionally added to NCSs, or to formulated natural products, to enhance their properties, lowering their production costs. Market analysis shows a tendency of people to use products made with NCSs and, currently, products made with ingredients of natural origin only are not conveniently distinguishable from those containing compounds of synthetic origin. Furthermore, the uncertainty of the current European regulatory framework does not allow consumers to correctly differentiate and identify products containing only ingredients of natural origin. The high demand for specific and effective NCSs and their high-cost offer on the market, create the conditions to economically motivated sophistications, characterized by the addition of a cheap material to a more expensive one, just to increase profit. This type of practice can concern both the addition of less valuable natural materials and the addition of pure artificial compounds with the same structure as those naturally present. In this scenario, it becomes essential for producers of natural products to have advanced analytical techniques to evaluate the effective naturalness of NCSs. In fact, synthetically obtained compounds are not identical to their naturally occurring counterparts, due to the isotopic composition or chirality, as well as the presence of different trace metabolites (since pure substances in nature do not exist). For this reason, in this review, the main analytical tests that can be performed to differentiate natural compounds from their synthetic counterparts will be highlighted and the main analytical technologies will be described. At the same time, the main fingerprint techniques useful for characterizing the complexity of the NCSs, also allowing their identification and quali-quantitative evaluation, will be described. Furthermore, NCSs can be produced through different manufacturing processes, not all of which are on the same level of quality. In this review the most suitable technologies for green processes that operate according to physical extraction principles will be presented, as according to the authors they are the ones that come closest to creating more life-cycle compatible NCSs and that are well suited to the European green deal, a strategy with the aim of transforming the EU into a sustainable and resource-efficient society by 2050.

Special Issue "Advanced Spectroscopy Techniques in Food Analysis: Qualitative and Quantitative Chemometric Approaches"

The globalization of the food market has created a pressing need for food producers to meet the ever-increasing demands of consumers while ensuring adherence to stringent food safety and quality standards [...].

Rapid Sensing: Hand-Held and Portable FTIR Applications for On-Site Food Quality Control from Farm to Fork

Today, one of the world's biggest problems is the assurance of food integrity from farm to fork. Economically motivated food adulteration and food authenticity problems are increasing daily with considerable health and economic effects. Early detection and prevention of food integrity-related problems could be provided by the application of effective on-site food analysis technologies. FTIR spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics can be used for the rapid quality control of a wide variety of food products with fast, high-throughput, accurate and nondestructive analysis advantages. In particular, hand-held and portable FTIR instruments have the potential to surveil food quality and food safety in various critical segments of the food supply chain. In this review, we explore the abilities of hand-held and portable FTIR spectrometers combined with multivariate statistics to conduct a quality evaluation of various food products in terms of food adulteration and authenticity issues. An examination of the literature showed that comparable results were obtained based on detection limits, correlation coefficient (R²) values, standard error values and discrimination power by using both portable/hand-held FTIR spectrometers and benchtop FTIR spectrometers. In conclusion, this review highlights the potential usefulness of portable and hand-held FTIR spectrometers combined with chemometrics for maintaining the food quality through the presentation of various applications that may shed light for on-site food control at any point of the food supply chain.