Multielemental Fingerprinting as a Tool for Authentication of Organic Wheat, Barley, Faba Bean, and Potato

Abstract

The multielemental composition of organic and conventional winter wheat, spring barley, faba bean, and potato was analyzed with inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and -mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The crops were cultivated in two years at three geographically different field locations, each accommodating one conventional and two organic cropping systems. The conventional system produced the highest harvest yields for all crops except the nitrogen-fixing faba bean, whereas the dry matter content of each crop was similar across systems. No systematic differences between organic and conventional crops were found in the content of essential plant nutrients when statistically analyzed individually. However, chemometric analysis of multielemental fingerprints comprising up to 14 elements allowed discrimination. The discrimination power was further enhanced by analysis of up to 25 elements derived from semiquantitative ICP-MS. It is concluded that multielemental fingerprinting with semiquantitative ICP-MS and chemometrics has the potential to enable authentication of organic crops.

Can Agricultural Cultivation Methods Influence the Healthfulness of Crops for Foods?

“…The crops were grown in two successive years, 2007 and 2008 (years 1 and 2), at three different locations, Flakkebjerg (Fla), Jyndevad (Jyn), and Foulum (Fou), in Denmark. Further descriptions of field study design and of field and soil characteristics are given by Olesen et al 30 and Laursen et al 24 There was a total crop loss of fava beans in year 2 at Flakkebjerg due to a severe attack of aphids (Aphis fabae L.) and Fla-year 2 was excluded from the study, because it was not possible to compose the diets. Hence, the final number of experimental diets was reduced to 30.…”

“…However, a study by Laursen et al 24 performed on crops from the same field experiment concluded that there were no systematic differences between organic and conventional crop content of essential plant nutrients (C, N, K, Mg, P, S, Ca, Fe, Mn, B, Zn, Cu, Mo, Ba, Sr, and Na), and mineral content was also affected by year and location. Using the data from the individual crops in the aforementioned study, it was also possible to calculate the mineral content of the diets, and NRC requirements for growing rats was met.…”

Long-term amendment of urban and animal wastes equivalent to more than 100 years of application had minimal effect on plant uptake of potentially toxic elements

“…The limit of detection LOD was determined as 3 times the standard deviation of a minimum of 7 blanks. ICP-OES instrument settings were as described previously (Laursen et al, 2011).…”

An elemental analysis of conventionally, organically and self-grown carrots

“…An elemental fingerprint analysis could serve as a descriptor of the geographical origin, and has the potential to enable authentication of organic crops (Kelly & Bateman, 2010). It was used, for example, in classification of winter wheat, spring barley, faba bean and potato (Laursen et al, 2011), honeys (Chua, Abdul-Rahaman, Sarmidi, & Aziz, 2012), virgin olive oils, pumpkin seed oils, wines and Chinese cabbage (Bandoniene, Zettl, Meisel, & Maneiko, 2013;Benincasa, Lewis, Perri, Sindona, & Tagarelli, 2007;Bong et al, 2012;Geana et al, 2013), onion cultivars based on mineral content (Chope & Terry, 2009;Galdón, González, Rodríguez, & Romero, 2008), and fruit and vegetables (Patras et al, 2011).…”