Authenticity and traceability have been two of the most important issues in the food chain. Authenticity in particular, is closely related with both food quality and safety issues. Vegetables stand for a category of foods heavily affected by adulteration either in terms of geographic origin (national or international level) or production methods (organic or conventional production, fertilizers, pesticides, genetically modified vegetables). This review aims at addressing most of the currently applied methods for ensuring quality control of vegetables; a) instrumental: ion chromatography, high pressure liquid chromatography, atomic absorption spectrophotometry, electronic nose and mass spectroscopy and b) sensory analysis. The results of all the above mentioned methods were analyzed by means of multivariate analysis (principal component analysis, discriminant analysis, cluster analysis, canonical analysis, and factor analysis). All ensuing results and conclusions are summarized in eight comprehensive tables.

Original articlePhysico-chemical and sensory attributes in conjunction with multivariate analysis of two potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivars after 90 days of storage: an exploratory authentication study Summary Two cultivars of potato (Spunta and Agria), were studied in terms of their physico-chemical and sensory characteristics. These cultivars were cultivated in three geographical regions of Greece (Macedonia, North Greece; Thessaly, Central Greece; Peloponnese, South Greece) and were stored for 90 days after harvesting. The physico-chemical characteristics of the tubers determined, were pH, total acidity, firmness, dry matter and content in N, in K, P, Cu, Mn, Zn and Fe. The sensory characteristics measured for raw tubers of potato after storage, were skin colour, skin brightness, internal colour, surface roughness, odour intensity, moistness, surface wrinkling and stains while the sensory characteristics measured for the boiled tubers of potato were odour intensity, moistness, special taste, sweet taste, aftertaste persistence, metal taste, pastiness, mastication, flavour intensity, elasticity and overall acceptability. The application of multivariate analysis (principal component analysis, cluster analysis and discriminant analysis), revealed a variety of relations between the various parameters and resulted in satisfactory grouping either per geographical region or per cultivar.

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a highly nutritious, mild flavored, easy to blend food that has many possibilities for "building in" desired nutrients. Varietal and environmental differences are known to exist in the shape, size, and nutritional content of potatoes. Different populations opt for varying sensory properties in relation to their diets. Potatoes are a low energy food in comparison to cereals and legumes. The aim of this review was to present an update of the currently conducted studies both on the characterization of several potato varieties (physical, chemical, and sensory analysis) and by means of genetic modification. Towards this target, five comprehensive tables were compiled where all recent data (physicochemical properties) and GM varieties were presented in conjunction with multivariate analysis (chemometrics). The latter was shown to be effectively used towards authenticity purposes (identification of geographical origin, variety, GM).

This study was undertaken to determine the physicochemical and sensory characteristics of two potato cultivars (Spunta and Agria), cultivated in three geographical regions of Greece (Macedonia, Thessaly, Peloponnese). Multivariate analysis was applied to reveal relationships among various parameters and the effect of genotype and cultivated region. PCA showed specific sensory profile for the fresh tubers strongly depending on the potato cultivar. Similarly, implementation of PCA to the boiled potato tubers revealed concrete sensory profile for the geographical origin. The (CA) effectively grouped the physicochemical attributes, minerals and the sensory attributes related to taste, colour and odour. Application of (DA) both for cultivars and geographical regions disclosed that the most important parameters describing the overall acceptability were sweet taste, special taste and aftertaste persistence. In conclusion, the obtained information regarding the effect and interaction of cultivar and geographical region on potatoes quality could be potentially exploited for authenticity purposes.