Peptide fingerprint of high quality Campania white wines by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

Food traceability is essential to preserve the identity of unique quality traits against frauds or commercial disputes. Therefore, there is a growing demand of new traceability systems for the collection of information related to units/batches of food ingredients and products. A rapid method based on peptide profiles obtained from tryptic digests of whole wine proteins by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry is described. Reliable peptide fingerprints were obtained for high quality Campania white wines, providing a signature of the finished products. The MALDI spectra revealed the presence of common diagnostic ions, but also evidenced differences between wines. Furthermore, the MALDI-TOF spectral traces were converted into simulated images to obtain a graphical representation of spectra. The resulting "mass codes" constitute a simple tool to display differences between samples, suggesting their potential use as "biological bar codes" for food authenticity and traceability, probably applicable to other classes of certified food products. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.