Abstract
Berries represent one of the most important and high-valued group of modern-day health-beneficial "superfoods" whose dietary consumption has been recognized to be beneficial for human health for a long time. In addition to being delicious, berries are rich in nutrients, vitamins, and several bioactive compounds, including carotenoids, flavonoids, phenolic acids, and hydrolysable tannins. However, due to their high value, berries and berry-based products are often subject to fraudulent adulteration, commonly for economical gain, but also unintentionally due to misidentification of species. Deliberate adulteration often comprises the substitution of high-value berries with lower value counterparts and mislabeling of product contents. As adulteration is deceptive toward customers and presents a risk for public health, food authentication through different methods is applied as a countermeasure. Although many authentication methods have been developed in terms of fast, sensitive, reliable, and low-cost analysis and have been applied in the authentication of a myriad of food products and species, their application on berries and berry-based products is still limited. The present review provides an overview of the development and application of analytical chemistry methods, such as isotope ratio analysis, liquid and gas chromatography, spectroscopy, as well as DNA-based methods and electronic sensors, for the authentication of berries and berry-based food products. We provide an overview of the earlier use and recent advances of these methods, as well as discuss the advances and drawbacks related to their application.
Highlights
Plant-based foods and food products, such as those derived from medicinal plants and wild forest plants, have been recognized to be beneficial for human nutrition and health for thousands of years
This review presents a comprehensive summary of the application of analytical chemistry and DNA-based methods, as well as the use of electronic sensors, in research related to the authentication of berries and berry-based food products
Because a significant number of the applications of liquid chromatography (LC) are based on the analysis of anthocyanin (ACN) contents and profiles in ACNcontaining berries, especially species from the genus Vaccinium, we focus on the analysis of ACN profiles by LC in the first part of this section
Summary
Plant-based foods and food products, such as those derived from medicinal plants and wild forest plants, have been recognized to be beneficial for human nutrition and health for thousands of years. Berries are commonly sold and consumed fresh, especially during the season of their ripening Due to their generally short shelf life, berries are often stored frozen or dried, and used as ingredients in many types of food products and dietary supplements, such as juices, jams, jellies, and extracts. Soft fruits commonly known as berries, but which are not berries by botanical definition, such as strawberries and raspberries, are included Due to their numerous health benefits and high value, berries and berry-based products are often subject to adulteration. Food authentication can be defined as a process in which the ingredients of a given product are verified not to be in contradiction with its label description (Danezis et al, 2016) Such methods include analytical chemistry and nucleic acid–based analyses for the identification of ingredients and the detection of adulterants and chemical additives (authentication), as well as the determination of raw material origin (traceability). We provide an overview for the methods’ earlier use, recent advances, assess their future use, and discuss their advantages and limitations
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