News

This review (open access) presents a comprehensive summary of the principles and recent advancements in the application of stable isotope techniques for authenticity assessment. It examines their use in detecting fraud (e.g., identifying edible alcohol, exogenous water, carbonylation, and trace compounds), vintage identification, and geographical origin determination across various alcoholic beverages, with a particular focus on wine, Chinese baijiu, and beer.   It cites over 100 publications from the past 15 years.

The authors conclude that stable isotope analysis is a powerful tool for verifying the authenticity of alcoholic beverages, offering effective solutions to combat counterfeiting, mislabeling, and adulteration. They recommend that future studies should focus on understanding the ecological, biological, and hydrometeorological factors influencing isotope signatures and develop advanced multi-isotope and chemometric approaches to improve reliability. Expanding global databases and integrating emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will further enhance the effectiveness and accessibility of stable isotope techniques, ensuring safer and higher-quality alcoholic beverages for consumers worldwide.

Photo by Ibrahim Boran on Unsplash

This study (open access) examined how variations in δ²H and δ¹⁸O values of cooking water affect the isotopic fingerprint of noodles with different gluten-to-starch formulations.

Eight differently formulated noodles were boiled using waters with six distinct isotopic compositions ranging from of −160‰ to +50‰ for δ²H and from −22.9‰ to +99.9‰ for δ¹⁸O, respectively.

It was found that formulation and water isotopic composition significantly affected the δ²H in cooked noodles. Additionally, the δ²H values of noodles changed with the isotopic signatures of the cooking water. Conversely, δ¹⁸O in the noodles remained stable despite boiling processing and was also not changed by the water's isotopic signature.

The authors derived an equation for determining the exchange factor (f(H)ex) between noodles and cooking water. The fraction of hydrogen atoms in different noodles for exchange was highest at 19.3% in noodles with the formulation of 45:55(gluten-to-starch) and the lowest at 11.1% in noodles with 100% gluten.

The authors conclude that cooking water systematically alters the isotopic signatures of noodles, underscoring the necessity of considering this type of effect in food authentication and traceability practices.

Photo by M. W on Unsplash

This study (open access) advances the field of “natural” vanilla flavour authentication, and of geographic origin of vanilla pods, by investigating minor volatile organic compounds and their isotopic ratios. Vanilla pods from the two main vanilla species, V. planifolia and V. tahitensis, were investigated using GC-MS/MS to analyze their aromatic profile and GC-C/Py-IRMS to determine compound-specific isotope ratios, providing, for the first time, detailed and authentic isotopic and aromatic profiles.

The researchers quantified more than 50 volatile compounds in different vanilla pods.

A key finding was the confirmation—through UHPLC-HRMS analysis—that ethyl vanillin and its glucoside precursors were absent in genuine vanilla extracts, reinforcing that the detection of ethyl vanillin remains a reliable marker of fraud.

The authors conclude that their study provides new insights into the natural pathways of biosynthesis in vanilla. For the first time, compound-specific isotope analysis has been applied to minor aromatic compounds in vanilla pods, opening new avenues for their use in authentication and botanical and geographical traceability of vanilla flavours. The study pioneers the application of isotope analysis to authentic vanilla extracts spiked with synthetic ethyl vanillin, enabling a more precise assessment of the impact on the isotopic composition of foods flavoured with natural vanillin following fraudulent augmentation with small amounts of ethyl vanillin.

Photo by Jocelyn Morales on Unsplash

This study (open access) investigated the impact of aging on the isotopic ratios in Italian balsamic vinegar, focusing on δ¹⁸O of water and δ¹³C of glucose, fructose, and acetic acid. Bulk variables such as water content, density, total acidity, refractive index, and glucose and fructose concentration were also evaluated. The findings revealed that δ¹⁸O values of water progressively increased with aging inside the casks’ series for Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena, allowing a clear differentiation between traditional and non-traditional balsamic vinegars. In contrast, the δ¹³C values of glucose, fructose, and acetic acid were also influenced by the conditions of production and origins of the starting raw materials. Further research is needed to better understand the effects of the individual factors that influence the δ¹³C values for enhancing the ability to authenticate and differentiate balsamic vinegar products.

In this study (open access), researchers set out to discriminate Royal Gala and Golden Delicious apples as being either Czech or Polish origin.  They built a reference database of 64 samples were collected in the years 2020–2022 from Central Bohemia  Eastern Bohemia, South Moravia, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Łódź Voivodeship, and Masovian Voivodeship.  They measured phosphorus (P), potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), boron (B), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), and iron (Fe) as well as isotope ratios ¹⁰B/¹¹B and  ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr.

They concluded that, with this data set, it was not possible to robustly differentiate Czech vs Polish origin.  The variation within individual regions, and the variation due to different agricultural inputs, was too significant compared to the variation between countries.  They concluded that differentiation would be possible in principle but a much more granular reference database would be needed.  Their findings contradicted previous published work that phosphorus was a suitable marker to differentiate Czech from Polish apples.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash