Chemometrics applications, foodstuff

TABLE 1 Main Applications of HIS and Chemometrics in Foodstuff—Cont d ... 

PyMS is capable of generating useful data on intact foodstuffs or associated microorganisms (food poisoning bacteria, for example). PyMS is based on the controlled thermal degradation of samples under inert conditions to produce mixtures of volatile compounds that are swept into the mass spectrometer ion source and ionized by El or Cl. The resulting fingerprint spectrum of the analyte contains characteristic features that can be classified by chemometric methods. Pyrolysis is sometimes combined with GC-MS in order to extract more information from the analyte. Applications of PyMS in the food sciences include quality assurance and authentication of food and drinks, analysis of cell wall material in food plants, and identification of food microorganisms. 

The second part of the book—Chapters 9-12— presents some selected applications of chemometrics to different topics of interest in the field of food authentication and control. Chapter 9 deals with the application of chemometric methods to the analysis of hyperspectral images, that is, of those images where a complete spectrum is recorded at each of the pixels. After a description of the peculiar characteristics of images as data, a detailed discussion on the use of exploratory data analytical tools, calibration and classification methods is presented. The aim of Chapter 10 is to present an overview of the role of chemometrics in food traceability, starting from the characterisation of soils up to the classification and authentication of the final product. The discussion is accompanied by examples taken from the different ambits where chemometrics can be used for tracing and authenticating foodstuffs. Chapter 11 introduces NMR-based metabolomics as a potentially useful tool for food quality control. After a description of the bases of the metabolomics approach, examples of its application for authentication, identification of adulterations, control of the safety of use, and processing are presented and discussed. Finally, Chapter 12 introduces the concept of interval methods in chemometrics, both for data pretreatment and data analysis. The topics... 

As far as the choice of a chemometrics technique to be used is concerned, it strongly depends on the aim of the investigation. In the authentication cmitext, the most general applications [16-21] are (i) characterisation of foodstuffs, (ii) discrimination or classification into one or several categories, (iii) monitoring and controlling of production processes, and (iv) identification of product adulteration, dilution, and contaminatiOTi. Wine is, by far, the food matrix for which chemometrics has been frequently caUed upon foUowed by cheese, oUve oil, honey, meat, and so on [27]. 

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