A simple and accurate method for lamb traceability based on gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry

Area of Science:

• Food Science
• Analytical Chemistry
• Metabolomics

Background:

• Mislabelling of lower-grade mutton as premium lamb is an economic concern.
• Authentic lamb origin verification is crucial for consumer trust and fair trade.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a robust method for tracing lamb origin.
• To identify key volatile organic compounds (VOCs) indicative of lamb geographical origin.

Main Methods:

• Gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS) coupled with chemometrics.
• Optimization of incubation temperature for VOC release (40°C vs. 60°C).
• Orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) for data analysis.

Main Results:

• Incubation at 40°C yielded 81 VOCs, while 60°C yielded 185 VOCs, but 40°C provided better origin-specific signatures.
• Fifteen key VOCs (e.g., pentanal, acetoin, hexanal) with VIP >1 were identified using OPLS-DA.
• LDA achieved 100% initial classification and 97.4% cross-validation accuracy for lamb origin traceability.

Conclusions:

• GC-IMS combined with chemometrics offers a reliable method for lamb origin traceability.
• Branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) degradation is a significant metabolic pathway distinguishing lamb origins.
• The developed method effectively combats economic adulteration in the lamb market.