Characterization of the Geographical and Varietal Origin of Wheat and Bread by Means of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) Methods and Chemometrics: A Review

Abstract

In recent years, food authentication, in terms of geographical and varietal/animal origins, is considered of primary importance at all levels of the production process. Therefore, it is clear that there is an economic basis to develop analytical methods able to certify the declared origin of food products, in order to protect consumers and honest producers from fraud and unfair competition, respectively; consequently, during recent years, several food authentication techniques have been proposed. This review attempted to present in a critical way the contribution of High Resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (HR-NMR) and Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) techniques in the assessment of quality and authenticity, mainly in terms of characterization of geographical and varietal origin, of wheat and wheat products, focusing on the most important studies to this direction.

C-N elemental and isotopic investigation in agricultural soils: Insights on the effects of zeolitite amendments

“…These values highlight physiological differences between stems and grains, with the latter generally 13 Cenriched, leading to intra-plant isotopic fractionation in the order of δ 13 C 1.3-2.4 ‰ comparable to what observed by Sanchez-Bragado et al (2013). The obtained results are conforming with those typical of C3 photosynthetic pathways worldwide, and particularly with those of durum wheat plants from other occurrences in northern Italy (Brescia et al, 2002;Longobardi et al, 2015).…”

“…In this case, on average, the δ 15 Ngrains> δ 15 Nstems. A comparison with the comprehensive dataset provided by Longobardi et al (2015), highlights that the δ 15 N values obtained in this study are generally high, thus reflecting a significant signal of animal manure (δ 15 N 21.7 ‰) which was preponderant in the 10CZ samples.…”

Towards a Universal Approach Based on Omics Technologies for the Quality Control of Food

“…The main aim of fingerprinting is not to identify all the involved compounds but to establish patterns among them; this approach enables the simultaneous detection of a wide class of metabolites. Examples of metabolic fingerprinting on different foodstuffs include grape and wine [ 115 , 116 ], orange [ 117 ], saffron [ 118 ], olive oil [ 119 ], and wheat and bread [ 120 ]. Profiling and fingerprinting can offer complementary information and thus can be used alone or in combination [ 121 , 122 ].…”

Isotope Fingerprints of Common and Tartary Buckwheat Grains and Milling Fractions: A Preliminary Study

“…Scientists have also used the stable isotope approach and elemental composition to classify wheat and other cereals into different categories and cultivation regions across Europe: north, south, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea [9]. For instance, Longobardi et al [10] mainly used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) to characterize a wheat and wheat product's geographical and varietal origin. These techniques provide a "fingerprint" of the foodstuffs, which can detect certain fraudulent practices and authenticate the geographical origin by comparison with authentic samples.…”