Chemometric tools for food authentication

The combination of instrumental analytical techniques and chemometrics is increasingly used in food authentication. Among these tools and by analogy with the recognition of people the authentication of foodstuffs using fingerprints has now become an essential tool. It is essentially based on verifying the consistency of the information provided on the label (origin composition etc.) with the information extracted from the chemometric processing of the signal associated with the food sample provided by instrumental analysis techniques. The practical application of fingerprint authentication of foodstuffs requires the completion of a previous step involving the determination by an instrumental analysis technique of an experimental profile relating to the food sample.