Authenticating nut and nut products is not only important to prevent adulteration, but also has safety implications for allergy sufferers. Spanish researchers have developed a method using HPLC-FLD (high performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection) combined with chemometrics (partial least squares discrimination - PLS-DA) to produce non-targeted fingerprints to authenticate ten species of nuts, as well as detect and quantify adulterations with hazelnut and peanut in almond-based products (almond flour and almond custard cream). A satisfactory global nut classification was achieved with PLS-DA. Paired PLS-DA models of almonds with their adulterants were also evaluated, producing a classification rate of 100%.
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