Geographical origin of Chinese apples based on multiple element analysis.

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Food Science
• Chemometrics

Background:

• Regional differences in apple quality and characteristics exist but are understudied.
• Consumer appeal varies based on these regional attributes.
• A comprehensive elemental profiling of Chinese apples was initiated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize the elemental profiles of apples from five distinct regions in China.
• To develop and evaluate chemometric models for apple authentication based on elemental composition.
• To investigate the potential of elemental analysis for determining apple geographical origin.

Main Methods:

• Collected 317 apple samples from five regions across China.
• Utilized graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) to identify 14 elements.
• Applied principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and back-propagation artificial neural networks (BP-ANN) for data analysis and model building.

Main Results:

• Successfully identified and quantified 14 elements in all apple samples.
• Demonstrated significantly different elemental profiles among apples from different regions.
• PCA explained 71.8% of the total variance; LDA achieved 70.0% classification rate; BP-ANN achieved 82.7% classification rate.

Conclusions:

• Elemental profiles of apples can serve as a reliable indicator for geographical authentication.
• The findings provide a foundation for future research into the geographical traceability of apples.
• This study highlights the utility of chemometrics in food authentication and origin determination.