News

Herbs and spices are one of the food commodities most susceptible to adulteration and fraud. In this study, 5 fingerprinting techniques - Near Infrared (NIR), Mid-Infrared (MIR), Hyper Spectral Imaging (HSI), Gas Chromatography coupled to Mass Spectrometry (GC–MS), and Proton-transfer Reaction Time-of-Flight Mass spectrometry (PTR-TOF-MS), combined with chemometrics, are examined to evaluate their potential to authenticate oregano. In total, 102 oregano samples from one harvest season were analysed for origin and variety assessment, 159 samples for adulteration assessment, and 72 samples for batch-to-batch control. Different chemometric models were applied for adulteration, origin and variety assessment. The best results were for origin assessment, which gave prediction rates of more than 89%. A level of 10% adulteration of oregano with myrtle, sumac, olive and cistus could be detected using HSI, NIR and PTR-TOF-MS.

Read the abstract here

The aim of this study by Brazilian researchers was to identify authenticity markers to distinguish between true and false cinnamon, and use mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIR) with chemometric analysis as a fast screening method. A  total of 129 samples of cinnamon were obtained from Brazil, Sri Lanka and Paraguay. The samples were analysed by hplc (high performance liquid chromatography) and MIR. The levels of eugenol, cinnamaldehyde and coumarin were measured.  Samples of true cinnamon had higher levels of eugenol and cinnamaldehyde and lower levels of coumarin, and they also had higher antioxidant activity. Principal component analysis (PCA) of both the hplc and MIR results was able to separate the two types of cinnamon, and partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was able to differentiate between the true and false cinnamon with 94.4% and 100% accuracy for the compositional analysis and MIR respectively.

Read the abstract here

This review investigates the feasibility of different non-destructive techniques used for authenticating meat products, which could provide real-time monitoring in the near future. The spectroscopic techniques reviewed are NIR (near infrared), MIR (mid-infrared), FTIR (Fourier transform infrared), and Raman. The imaging techniques discussed are colour imaging, hyperspectral imaging and Xray imaging with computed technology. The advantages of these techniques is that they can be applied in-situ, and they give rapid results, but calibration procedures are laborious. In addition, the results are influenced by scanning times, sample to detector distance and environmental factors such as ambient temperature, humidity, illumination conditions, and sample temperature, the latter can differ in meat processing facilities. However, it is hoped that the application of these techniques will be easier with the improvement in instrumental technology, the availability of high-speed computers with appropriate storage capacity, and the development of appropriate chemometric procedures.

Read the full paper here