Chromatographic analysis of sugars applied to the characterisation of monofloral honey

The control of the floral quality of honey has become a priority issue as a result of the number of abuses observed and the relative ease of getting around existing control methods. We conducted chromatographic analyses of honey sugars to determine new criteria for authenticating an origin. The work involved creating databases by analysing a large number of authentic honeys from seven monofloral varieties, followed by statistical processing of the results by a principal components analysis. Differences in composition could thus be demonstrated, such as the presence of trisaccharides in fir honey, that provide an additional tool for authenticating unknow commercial honeys.     

Enantioselective comprehensive two‐dimensional gas chromatography. A route to elucidate the authenticity and origin of Rosa damascena Miller essential oils

The analysis of Bulgarian and Turkish Rosa damascena Miller essential oils was performed by flow‐modulated comprehensive two‐dimensional gas chromatography using simultaneous detection of the second column effluent by flame ionization and quadrupole mass spectrometric detection. Enantioselective separations were obtained by running the samples on 2,3‐di‐O‐ethyl‐6‐O‐tert‐butyldimethylsilyl‐β‐cyclodextrin column as the first column and on polyethylene glycol as the second column. The determination of enantiomeric or diastereomeric excess of some terpenoic solutes is a possible route for quality or authenticity control as well as for the elucidation of the country of origin.     

Application of support vector machines to 1H NMR data of fish oils: methodology for the confirmation of wild and farmed salmon and their origins

Support vector machines (SVMs) were used as a novel learning machine in the authentication of the origin of salmon. SVMs have the advantage of relying on a well-developed theory and have already proved to be successful in a number of practical applications. This paper provides a new and effective method for the discrimination between wild and farm salmon and eliminates the possibility of fraud through misrepresentation of the country of origin of salmon. The method requires a very simple sample preparation of the fish oils extracted from the white muscle of salmon samples. (1)H NMR spectroscopic analysis provides data that is very informative for analysing the fatty acid constituents of the fish oils. The SVM has been able to distinguish correctly between the wild and farmed salmon; however ca. 5% of the country of origins were misclassified.     

H NMR and C-IRMS analyses of acetic acid from vinegar, O-IRMS analysis of water in vinegar: International collaborative study report

An international collaborative study of isotopic methods applied to control the authenticity of vinegar was organized in order to support the recognition of these procedures as official methods. The determination of the ²H/¹H ratio of the methyl site of acetic acid by SNIF-NMR (site-specific natural isotopic fractionation-nuclear magnetic resonance) and the determination of the ¹³C/¹²C ratio, by IRMS (isotope ratio mass spectrometry) provide complementary information to characterize the botanical origin of acetic acid and to detect adulterations of vinegar using synthetic acetic acid. Both methods use the same initial steps to recover pure acetic acid from vinegar. In the case of wine vinegar, the determination of the ¹⁸O/¹⁶O ratio of water by IRMS allows to differentiate wine vinegar from vinegars made from dried grapes. The same set of vinegar samples was used to validate these three determinations.The precision parameters of the method for measuring δ¹³C (carbon isotopic deviation) were found to be similar to the values previously obtained for similar methods applied to wine ethanol or sugars extracted from fruit juices: the average repeatability (r) was 0.45 ‰, and the average reproducibility (R) was 0.91‰. As expected from previous in-house study of the uncertainties, the precision parameters of the method for measuring the ²H/¹H ratio of the methyl site were found to be slightly higher than the values previously obtained for similar methods applied to wine ethanol or fermentation ethanol in fruit juices: the average repeatability was 1.34 ppm, and the average reproducibility was 1.62 ppm. This precision is still significantly smaller than the differences between various acetic acid sources (δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O) and allows a satisfactory discrimination of vinegar types. The precision parameters of the method for measuring δ¹⁸O were found to be similar to the values previously obtained for other methods applied to wine and fruit juices: the average repeatability was 0.15‰, and the average reproducibility was 0.59‰. The above values are proposed as repeatability and reproducibility limits in the current state of the art.On the basis of this satisfactory inter-laboratory precision and on the accuracy demonstrated by a spiking experiment, the authors recommend the adoption of the three isotopic determinations included in this study as official methods for controlling the authenticity of vinegar.     

基于FTIR的芝麻油真伪鉴别和掺伪定量分析模型

把低价油掺入到高价油是食用油脂中的常见掺伪现象,芝麻油由于品质好价格高,市场上时有假冒伪劣产品,因此应用FTIR并结合化学计量学,建立了芝麻油的真伪和掺伪的快速分析方法。首先分析了芝麻油与大豆油、葵花籽油在4 000～650 cm-1范围的FTIR谱图,由于食用植物油都是不同脂肪酸甘油三酯的混合物,其谱图极为相似,很难发现芝麻油与其他油脂的明显差异。但是不同食用油的脂肪酸组成不同,其1 800～650 cm-1红外指纹特征区也有所不同,因此可以选择该区域,对红外光谱数据用化学计量学方法进行分类识别。通过建立主成分分析(PCA)和簇类独立软模式识别(SIMCA)模型,进行了芝麻油的真伪鉴别,该模型聚类效果较为理想,识别正确率达到了100％;采用标准正态化校正(SNV)和偏最小二乘法(PLS),经过PCA分析计算,芝麻油中掺入大豆油、葵花籽油的掺伪检测限均为10%;利用FTIR和PLS,建立了芝麻油掺的定量分析模型,该模型预测值与实际值有着良好的对应关系,预测相对误差为-6.87％～8.07％之间,说明定量模型可行。本方法能够实现芝麻油的快速真伪鉴别和掺伪定量分析,其优点是模型一旦建立,分析简便、快速,可以满足大量样品的日常监测。     

Compliance with legal requirements: definition of limits, sampling and measurement uncertainty

In many cases compositional requirements for foodstuffs (e.g. limits for the fat, protein, dry matter, or water content) are established by legislation. Adequate compliance testing is possible only if limits are clearly defined, taking measurement and sampling uncertainty into consideration. Furthermore, decisions on compliance must be based on samples which reflect the composition of the quantity to be evaluated. The resulting sample sizes are normally regarded by food inspection authorities as being much larger than acceptable. Consequently, an alternative strategy should be developed. Autocontrol data (i.e. inspection results obtained by the factory) in principle provide an adequate data basis for decisions on compliance. However, they must be reliable and the food inspection authority must have access to these data on request. Using these data and on condition that they show an approximate normal distribution, an inspection strategy based on arithmetic mean and standard deviation can be developed. Reliable and transparent decisions on compliance can thus be made. In many cases an adequate verification of food authenticity requires a comparison of raw material and product composition. Maximum acceptable differences, taking the relevant sources of variation into consideration, have to be defined and should be used instead of limits. Received: 17 April 2002 Accepted: 23 June 2002     

Stable isotope variation as a tool to trace the authenticity of beef

Organic beef coming principally from Germany was analysed for the hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur stable isotopic composition to test the possibility of tracing back the geographical origin. Since there is a well-known pattern of D/H and ¹⁸O/¹⁶O in meteoric water and in ground water, there is an existing link to tissue water in the beef. By including the stable isotope ratios of the other elements of life further information is available: soils show different isotope ratios of ¹⁵N/¹⁴N and ³⁴S/³²S depending on the geological composition, cultivation and atmospheric sulfur deposition. As organic farming is mainly obliged to use only their produced fodder, that ratio is reflected in the beef as well.Different organic beef samples from various German farms have been collected and analysed over nearly two years. To check the differentiation of foreign beef, samples from Argentina and Chile were also included in the study. The analyses of meat samples indicate that it is possible to trace back the region (e.g. Argentina and Germany) by using isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen. A local geographical differentiation can be done by using the stable isotopes of nitrogen and sulfur, as was demonstrated for three farms in Colonia Bay. An optimal differentiation also depends on the quality of further information (e.g. the season, kind of cattle breeding or the declaration of the local geographical origin). Certainly authenticity of beef is not only linked with the geographical origin but can also reflect the differentiation of organic and conventional farming. The fodder of organic cattle farming consists mainly of C₃ plants and the use of C₄ plants is more usual in conventional cattle farming. A ¹³C/¹²C ratio above –20 appears as a limit for organic farming. Increased values have to be controlled based on their authenticity.     

Interferometric moiré pattern encoded security holograms with concealed phase object

This paper describes an interferometry-based scheme for concealing phase objects in a security hologram. The decoding process is based on geometrical moiré technique and requires a key for hologram authenticity verification. Decoding process is straightforward and could be carried out in white light, making it suitable for validation of security holograms. The method is described and experimental results are presented.