NMR and multivariate statistical analysis in food farming

The PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) are most closely linked to the concept of territory, in the sense of place discernible in the flavour of the food. PDO products must be produced, processed and prepared in a specific region using traditional production procedures. The quality and the specific characteristics of the product derive essentially from the place of origin, and in particular are affected by the climate, the nature of the soil and by the local know-how. The aim of this study is to evaluate an objective analytical method to acknowledge the PDO of products. As a matter of fact today this denomination is released by the European Community only on the basis of sensorial analysis. 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is here proposed to analyze the metabolic content of some foods; NMR data were analyzed with multivariate statistical analysis protocols (PCA, PLS-DA, OPLS, Hierarchical models etc.) suitable to handle big amount of information as that obtained from NMR spectra. This information could be used to distinguish products in relation to their geographical origin since different pedoclimatic conditions influence the metabolic content. Our previous results showed the possibility to use this approach as alternative method for assessing the quality of the PDO products analyzed.