Classification of Hen Eggs by HPLC-UV Fingerprinting and Chemometric Methods.

Campmajó Campmajó,Saurina Saurina,Cayero Cayero,Núñez Núñez

doi:10.3390/foods8080310

Campmajó Campmajó, Saurina Saurina + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/foods8080310

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Abstract

Hen eggs are classified into four groups according to their production method: Organic, free-range, barn, or caged. It is known that a fraudulent practice is the misrepresentation of a high-quality egg with a lower one. In this work, high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV) fingerprints were proposed as a source of potential chemical descriptors to achieve the classification of hen eggs according to their labelled type. A reversed-phase separation was optimized to obtain discriminant enough chromatographic fingerprints, which were subsequently processed by means of principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Particular trends were observed for organic and caged hen eggs by PCA and, as expected, these groupings were improved by PLS-DA. The applicability of the method to distinguish egg manufacturer and size was also studied by PLS-DA, observing variations in the HPLC-UV fingerprints in both cases. Moreover, the classification of higher class eggs, in front of any other with one lower, and hence cheaper, was studied by building paired PLS-DA models, reaching a classification rate of at least 82.6% (100% for organic vs. non-organic hen eggs) and demonstrating the suitability of the proposed method.

Highlights

In the last years, the interest of society in the food they purchase and consume has been raised.In this line, products with value-added due to specific particularities such as organic production, protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), or those with fair-trade certification, are receiving special attention
This work aimed to develop a high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection (HPLC-UV) fingerprinting approach for the classification and discrimination of hen eggs according to their labelled typology
As the main goal of the present work was the discrimination of hen eggs according to their labelled class, and in order to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method, the classification of higher class eggs in front of any other with one lower, and cheaper, was studied by building paired partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models (i.e., O vs. free-range hen eggs (FR), B and C eggs; FR vs. B and C eggs; and B vs. C eggs)

Summary

Introduction

The interest of society in the food they purchase and consume has been raised In this line, products with value-added due to specific particularities such as organic production, protected designation of origin (PDO), protected geographical indication (PGI), or those with fair-trade certification, are receiving special attention. Hen eggs are among the most commonly eaten foods worldwide, as they have a high nutritional value, cheap costs, and are widely employed in international cuisines They consist of two parts: The egg white, which mainly consists of 85% water and 10% proteins (ovalbumin being the most abundant one) approximately, and the egg yolk, which is composed of almost 22% lipids [1,2]. Their intake provides all the essential amino acids, many vitamins (vitamin A, riboflavin, choline, vitamin B12 , and vitamin B9 ), and minerals (phosphorus, potassium, iron, and zinc)

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