Stable isotope ratio analysis for protecting foods with denomination

European Regulations EC Nos. 510/2006 and 1151/2012 require protection against the mislabelling of foods with Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Traditional Specialities Guaranteed (TSG). The number of these products is increasing year by year, reaching a total number of 1239 at the end of 2014 and Italy is the country with the highest number of designations (269). PDO, PGI and TSG foods can cost more than double the generic products imitating them and this remarkable price difference can induce the commercial temptation to use fraudulent designation labels not corresponding to the real production areas. In order to protect both the consumer and the honest producer from mislabelling fraud, it is desirable to develop objective and robust methods capable of discriminating the different types of products and usable to verify the authenticity of the marketed products with declaration of origin. Among the possibilities, measuring the stable isotope ratios of bioelements seems to be one of the best candidates for this purpose because their variability is linked to the geographical and climatic characteristics of the provenance area. The isotopic analysis has been successfully applied to PDO Italian cheeses and extra-virgin olive oils, PGI Aceto Balsamico di Modena and ‘Made in Italy’ tomato sauce.