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RESEARCH PRODUCT

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The identification of foods with protected designation of origin (PDO) has been a long-standing issue. Its detection provides valuable information to regulatory commissions (government and industries) which can regulate precise quality control procedures for their products. Authentication of food covers many different aspects, including characterization, mislabelling and misinformation regarding origin, and adulteration, which is defined as the process to reduce the quality or nature of a given substance by adding a foreign or an inferior substance and removing a vital element. Numerous methods have been developed as fingerprinting methodologies for PDO products. The analytical techniques critically evaluated in this chapter include atomic absorption spectroscopy, atomic emission spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma techniques. These techniques, in combination with chemometric methods, allow accurate discrimination of samples of different geographical origins and with different characteristics related to their mineral composition. These techniques have been applied to many different food products such as wines, rice, cheese, vegetables, fruits, drinks, meat products and fish, and in all these cases, the presence of trace and oligo elements at different concentration levels was of great value in verifying the geographical origin and the manufacturing processes involved.