NMR studies in food authentication

Different food matrices were analyzed by means of NMR spectroscopy and chemometrics, with the aim of authenticity determination. Some foods were investigated in terms of geographical discrimination, while others in fraud detection. In all cases studied, the metabolic water soluble content of the analyzed foods, was investigated by means of 1H and 13C spectroscopy, highlighting the powerful capacity of this "omic" approach in food authenticity determination. Our results suggested in case of geographical determination that foods carry a sort of "memory" of the soil were they were grown, which is transferred into the metabolic content, thus enabling the detection and the discrimination.