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This paper reviews recently published Chinese research to highlight the recent advances of isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) as a regulatory and verification tool for Chinese food products.  It covers more than 100 IRMS research papers that use up to 5 light stable isotopes (³C/¹²C, ²H/¹H, ¹⁵N/¹⁴N, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O, ³⁴S/³²S) as authenticity markers, combined with chemometric models. 

The range of food products include organic foods, honey, beverages, tea, animal products, fruits, oils, cereals, spices and condiments that are frequently unique to a specific region of China.

The authors conclude that - compared to other food authenticity and traceability techniques - IRMS has been successfully used to characterize, classify and identify many Chinese food products, reducing fraud and food safety problems and improving consumer trust and confidence.  

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Consumption of chia, flax and seame seeds has increased because of their nutritional and functional properties. An untargeted metabolomics approach was used in this study with H/D NMR, compared to previous mass spectrometry based targeted approaches. Three groups of  metabolites - polyphenol based caffeoyl derivatives and lignans, and cyanogenic glycosides  were identified in the 3 seeds, and seven authenticity markers (polyphenol based and cyanogenic glycosides) were able to distinguish between the 3 types of raw seeds. The authenticity markers in sesame seeds were validated by combining different concentrations in cookies and baking them. Two of the markers were unchanged by the baking process and regarded as good indicators of sesame seed authenticity in baked products.

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In this article, applications of several analytical techniques such as DNA-based techniques, spectrometric techniques, spectroscopic techniques, chromatographic techniques, lateral flow immunoassays, and neutron and proton based nuclear analytical techniques for forensic food analysis are discussed. These techniques are capable of analysing food samples rapidly, and permit the identification of authenticity markers, which are essential in uncovering food fraud. In addition, authenticity analyses of dyes in food, seafood, plant-based food, beverages, and forensic analysis of postmortem viscera are reviewed. 

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Spanish researchers have developed a liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-(quadropole time of flight)-MS) method to check the authenticity and adulteration of saffron, one of the most expensive spices/natural colourants on the market. Glycosylated kaempferol derivatives were determined as authenticity markers for saffron, and detection of geniposide revealed saffron adulteration with gardenia. The limit of detection of gardenia in saffron using this method was 0.2%.

Read the abstract at: QC of Saffron by LC-MS