Mono- and sesquiterpenoid fingerprinting: A powerful and streamlined solution for pine nut authentication

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Agricultural Economics

Background:

• Pine nuts are highly valued, with price influenced by species and origin.
• Counterfeiting of pine nuts is a concern due to significant price variations.
• Authenticating pine nut origin is crucial for quality control and fair trade.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel method for authenticating the geographical and botanical origin of pine nuts.
• To establish an effective screening tool for preventing pine nut counterfeiting.

Main Methods:

• Utilized mono- and sesquiterpene fingerprints analyzed by solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS).
• Employed chemometrics, specifically partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), for data analysis.
• Tested on 253 pine nut samples from China, Russia, Spain, and Turkey, covering different species (Pinus koraiensis, Pinus sibirica, Pinus pinea) and harvest years.

Main Results:

• Achieved 100% accuracy in external validation for distinguishing Spanish from non-Spanish pine nuts.
• Reached 99% accuracy in differentiating Pinus pinea samples from two distinct Spanish regions.
• Demonstrated high efficacy in classifying pine nuts based on origin and species.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method is a simple, affordable, and automatable tool for pine nut authentication.
• This approach can effectively support official controls and combat pine nut counterfeiting.
• Accurate origin verification ensures the integrity of high-value pine nut markets.