Recent advances in Chinese food authentication and origin verification using isotope ratio mass spectrometry

Over the last decade, isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) using up to 5 light stable isotopes (¹³C/¹²C, ²H/¹H, ¹⁵N/¹⁴N, ¹⁸O/¹⁶O, ³⁴S/³²S) has become more widely applied for food origin verification as well as food authentication in China. IRMS technology is increasingly used to authenticate a range of food products including organic foods, honey, beverages, tea, animal products, fruits, oils, cereals, spices and condiments that are frequently unique to a specific region of China. Compared to other food authenticity and traceability techniques, IRMS has been successfully used to characterize, classify and identify many Chinese food products, reducing fraud and food safety problems and improving consumer trust and confidence. IRMS techniques also provides scientific support to enhance China's strict government regulatory policies. Isotope testing verifies geographical origin labelling of domestic and imported foods, protects and verifies high value foods that are unique to China, and indicates environmentally friendly farming practices such as 'green' or 'organic' methods. This paper reviews recently published Chinese research to highlight the recent advances of IRMS as a regulatory and verification tool for Chinese food products.