Elemental and Isotopic Fingerprint of Argentinean Wheat. Matching Soil, Water, and Crop Composition to Differentiate Provenance

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate if elemental and isotopic signatures of Argentinean wheat can be used to develop a reliable fingerprint to assess its geographical provenance. For this pilot study we used wheat cultivated at three different regions (Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Entre Ríos), together with matching soil and water. Elemental composition was determined by ICP-MS. δ(13)C and δ(15)N were measured by isotopic ratio mass spectrometry, while (87)Sr/(86)Sr ratio was determined using thermal ionization mass spectrometry. Wheat samples from three sampling sites were differentiated by the combination of 11 key variables (K/Rb, Ca/Sr, Ba, (87)Sr/(86)Sr, Co, Mo, Zn, Mn, Eu, δ(13)C, and Na), demonstrating differences among the three studied regions. The application of generalized Procrustes analysis showed 99.2% consensus between cultivation soil, irrigation water, and wheat samples, in addition to clear differences between studied areas. Furthermore, canonical correlation analysis showed significant correlation between the elemental and isotopic profiles of wheat and those corresponding to both soil and water (r(2) = 0.97, p < 0.001 and r(2) = 0.96, p < 0.001, respectively). To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating the correspondence between soil, water, and wheat samples using different statistical methods, showing that wheat elemental and isotopic compositions are mainly related to soil and irrigation water characteristics of the site of growth.

Discrimination of unprocessed cotton on the basis of geographic origin using multi-element stable isotope signatures

“…The promising results of HCA of trivariate stable isotope signatures with regard to grouping 15 of the 17 US cotton samples in one single cluster notwithstanding, both the misclassification of the Texan cotton sample with samples from Tanzania and Zimbabwe and the grouping of the Las Cruces sample as an outlier prompt further studies to find out if the results presented here can be improved. A finding of not improving or even worsening numbers of mis‐grouped samples would in turn indicate that reliable discrimination of cotton with regard to geographic origin should not be based on multivariate stable isotope signatures alone but will require additional, independent variables such as trace element abundance values used in combination with stable isotope signatures . If necessary, the discriminatory power of a test for geographic provenancing might be increased further through additional independent variables such as trace element isotope ratio values obtained from mass spectrometric techniques such as multi‐collector inductively coupled plasma MS (MC‐ICP‐MS) or thermal ionisation MS (TIMS).…”

Conservation of 87 Sr/ 86 Sr isotopic ratios during the winemaking processes of ‘Red’ wines to validate their use as geographic tracer

“…Long lived isotope ratios of heavy elements of geological interest, such as 87 (Hoogewerff et al, 2001;Podio et al, 2013;Vorkelius et al, 2010). This increasing consideration is mainly based on the fact that radiogenic isotopic ratios are extensively used either for tracking geological and environmental processes or in dating cosmological and Earth's materials Horn et al, 1993;Tommasini et al, 2000).…”

The effectiveness of multi‐element fingerprints for identifying the geographical origin of wheat

“…This technique has been widely used in identifying the geographical origin of various foodstuffs and their relationship with soil, such as meat (Sun et al, 2010), honey (Batista et al, 2012;Baroni et al, 2015), fruits (Pearz et al, 2006;Benabdelkamel et al, 2012), cereals (Gonz alvez et al, 2011;Li et al, 2012;Podio et al, 2013), wines (Coetzee et al, 2005;Di Paola-Naranjo et al, 2011;Versari et al, 2014) and vegetables (Feudo et al, 2010;Furia et al, 2011). Due to the different hydrological characteristics and geological background, different plants have different elements profiles, providing the possibility of the geographical traceability for foodstuff including both plants and animals.…”