ELEMENTAL PROFILE COUPLED TO STABLE ISOTOPE ANALYSIS AND CHEMOMETRICS. A POWERFUL TOOL TO ASSESS THE GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGIN OF ARGENTINEAN BEEF.

BARONI M.V.; PODIO N; OSTERA HA; PILAR PERAL-GARCÍA; CAGNONI M; BADINI R,; CLAUDIA M. INGA; HOOGEWERFF J; DANIEL A. WUNDERLIN

Belfast

Congreso; ASSET 2011, Food Integrity and Traceability Conference; 2011

Queens University

The control of food provenance is an important topic for food quality and safety and for consumer confidence. In particular, the trade of cattle products such as beef and dairy products has recently been more strictly controlled due to concerns relating to BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy).   In this work we report the use of combined multi-element isotope (13C, 34S, 15N, 87Sr/86Sr) and trace element analysis to determine the geographical origin of Argentinean beef. We sought to correlate geology of the region where it grows cattle with the chemical composition of meat from these regions. Beef, soil and water samples originating from the major cattle producing regions of Argentina were analyzed within the FP6-TRACE project. Multi-elemental profile was combined with the stable isotope data and submitted to multivariate analysis. Seventeen key variables (Rb, Se, Mn, Mo, Ca, Na, B, K, Mg, K/Rb, Ca/Sr, 34S, 15N and 87Sr/86Sr) were identified by lineal discriminant analysis as providing the maximum discrimination between beef samples on the basis of geographical areas. Generalized procrustes and Canonical analyses showed good correlation between soil, water and beef elemental profiles. We conclude that the analysis of mineral profile in beef, along with the use of chemometrics, provide with a powerful tool for geographical classification of beef. Furthermore, we could demonstrate the influence of elemental profile from soil and water in the elemental composition of beef.