Authentication and identification of food adulterants based on fingerprinting techniques and chemometric tools

Authentication is an important issue in quality control, hygiene and safety of food products. Detection and identification of food adulterants require the development of novel and effective analytical methods for verification of composition, quality and authenticity to ensure food safety and consumers satisfaction. Fingerprinting techniques involves chromatographic fingerprinting, electrophoretic fingerprinting, spectroscopic fingerprinting, and electronic sensor fingerprinting. Liquid chromatography (LC), gas chromatography (GC), near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging (HSI) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) are already common techniques and they will utilize to food fraud prevention. NIR, MIR and Raman spectroscopic techniques as well as sensor-based fingerprinting (E-Nose, E-Tongue and E-Eye) have the great advantage of providing fast, high throughput, and non-destructive analyses with limited costs. Food fingerprinting combined with chemometric techniques represents a valuable tool for fraud detection and control of food products. This review paper details the fingerprinting techniques applied in the detection and identification of adulteration to obtain food fingerprints, emphasizing the advantages and drawbacks of each technique, as well as review and discuss the reported studies in which these techniques have been applied in the area of food authentication.