Verifying and investigating food authenticity with Mass Spectrometry. Some case studies from around the world

Date: 28 February 2019
Time: 14:40

Mitigating food fraud requires governments and industry to deploy a range of measures. Testing food in the supply chain ensures these measures are working and further deters criminals. This presentation will explore how mass spectrometry can be set up to do this important work, with case studies shown on differentiation of different types of wine, coffee and saffron.

Mass Spectrometry can be used in the lab as a front-line test or as part of a two-tier strategy supporting positive screening results coming from field. For this to be possible a diverse range of authentic samples must first be collected and analyzed. By using powerful chemometric software , patterns in the data are found that allows recognition of future samples in terms of their origin or variety etc. Potential Fraudulent practice is indicated when a future sample is recognized as something different to that on the label or is simply not recognized at all and mass spectrometry usually can identify the elements or compounds that drive such differentiations. This increases the confidence that the data is reliable allowing an analyst to investigate how the chemistry has changed in a suspect sample, providing more clues as to what type of fraudulent practice may have happened.