Selective Methods to Investigate Authenticity and Geographical Origin of Mediterranean Food Products

ABSTRACT

The Mediterranean diet is promoted as one of the healthiest and closely linked to socioecological practices, knowledge and traditions, promoting sustainable food production, and linking geographical origin with food quality and ecosystem services. Consumer adherence to this dietary pattern drives increased consumption of authentic “premium” foods, such as Iberian pig meat and dry-cured ham from Portugal and Spain, argan oil from Morocco, “Djebel” lamb from Tunisia and truffles from Italy and Slovenia, i.e., food products that respond to current ethical, environmental and socially sustainable demands. Geographical indication and appellation of origin can increase traditional food products competitiveness, but the high-value recognition of these products can also lead to economically motivated product adulteration. It is therefore imperative to protect the high added value of these unique food products by ensuring their quality, authenticity, provenance and sustainable production systems. In this review, we provide a critical evaluation of the analytical methods that are currently used for the determination of provenance and authenticity of these Mediterranean products as well as possible strategies for improving the throughput and affordability of the methods discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Geographical origin
• stable isotope ratios
• elemental profiles
• molecular characterization
• authenticity
• traceability

Acknowledgments

This review was prepared within the frame of the REALMed project. REALMed has been inspired by a previous EU-funded project, FOODINTEGRITY (FP7-KBBE-2013-7- 613688: Ensuring the Integrity of the European food chain) and ISO-FOOD Era Chair for isotope techniques in food quality, safety, and traceability project (GA no. 621329). REALMed is currently funded by ARIMNet2 −2014-2017, an ERA-NET coordinated by INRA-France and funded under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration, under grant agreement no. 618127. The financial support by the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport should also be acknowledged.

Declaration of Interest Statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Notes

¹ Isotope data are expressed with the conventional δ-notation using the general formula:

δⁱE = (R(ⁱE/^jE)_sample/R(ⁱE/^jE)_standard) – 1

where E is the element (H, C, N, O, S), R is the isotope ratio between the heavier “i” and the lighter “j” isotope (²H/¹ H, ¹³C/¹²C, ¹⁵N/¹⁴N, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O, ³⁴S/³²S) in the sample and relevant internationally recognized reference standard. The delta values are multiplied by 1000 and expressed in units “per mil” (‰). For hydrogen and oxygen Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (V-SMOW) is used as a reference standard, the Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite (V-PDB) for carbon, atmospheric N₂ (AIR) for nitrogen, while for sulphur Vienna-Canyon Diablo Troilite (V-CDT) is used.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the FP7 Coordination of Non-Community Research Programmes [ERA-NET coordinated by INRA-France and funded unde,ISO-FOOD Era Chair /621329];FP7 Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Biotechnology [FP7-KBBE-2013-7- 613688];Javna Agencija za Raziskovalno Dejavnost RS [P1-0143];Ministrstvo za Izobraževanje, Znanost in Šport [3330-17-500186].