Chromatograms are a valuable source
of information about the chemical
composition of the food being analyzed. Sometimes, this information
is not explicit and appears in a hidden or not obvious way. Thus,
the use of chemometric tools and data-mining methods to extract it
is required. The fingerprint provided by a chromatogram offers the
possibility to perform both identity and quality testing of foodstuffs.
This perspective is aimed at providing an updated opinion of chromatographic
fingerprinting methodology in the field of food authentication. Furthermore,
the limitations, its absence in official analytical methods, and the
future directions of this methodology are discussed.
Brandy de Jerez is a unique spirit produced in Southern Spain under Protected Geographical Indication “Brandy de Jerez” (PGI). Two key factors for the production of quality brandies are the original wine spirit and its aging process. They are significantly conditioned by specific variables related to the base wine and the distillation method employed to produce the wine spirit used to obtain a finally aged brandy. This final beverage is therefore strongly influenced by its production process. The chromatographic instrumental fingerprints (obtained by GC FID) of the major volatile fraction of a series of brandies have been examined by applying a chemometric approach based on unsupervised (hierarchical cluster analysis and principal component analysis) and supervised pattern recognition tools (partial least squares–discriminant analysis and support vector machine). This approach was able to identify the fermentation conditions of the original wine, the distillation method used to produce the wine spirit, and the aging process as the most influential factors on the volatile profile.
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