Abstract
Substitution of frozen-thawed food products for fresh ones is a significant authenticity issue being extensively investigated over the past few years by various conventional methods, but little success has been achieved. Fluorescence spectroscopy is a sensitive and selective spectroscopic technique that has been widely applied recently to deal with various food quality and authenticity issues. The technique is based on the excitation of certain photosensitive components (known as fluorophores) to fluoresce in the UV and visible spectral ranges. Fluorescence spectroscopy can be performed to obtain simple classical two-dimensional fluorescence spectra (excitation/emission), synchronous or three-dimensional excitation–emission matrices (excitation/emission/fluorescence signal). The technique can be used in front-face or right-angle configurations and can be even combined with hyperspectral imaging, requiring the use of multivariate data analysis to extract useful information. In this review, we summarize the recent progress in applications of fluorescence spectroscopy to differentiate truly fresh foods from frozen-thawed products. The basics of the technique will be briefly presented and some relevant examples, focusing especially on fish and meat products, will be given. It is believed that interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers working with data analysis and spectroscopy, as well as industry and regulatory authorities would help to overcome the current shortcomings, holding the great promise of fluorescence spectroscopy for fighting food fraud in the food industry.
Highlights
Freshness is an important quality parameter for foods that are highly perishable, such as fish and meat products
Freezing is still the most common method used to retain freshness and extend the shelf life of many foods, including fish and meat and their products. It is well-established that freezing, frozen storage, and the following thawing process lead to some deteriorative quality changes, such as damage in cell structure, protein denaturation, texture, color, among others [11,12,13]
To date no review paper has been found in the literature that and exclusively issues reports on the potential of fluorescence food was addressed as a part of various other authenticity
Summary
Freshness is an important quality parameter for foods that are highly perishable, such as fish and meat products. To date no review paper has been found in the literature that and exclusively issues reports on the potential of fluorescence food was addressed as a part of various other authenticity (such as substitution of spectroscopy to distinguish this kind of fraud (i.e., labeling frozen-thawed food as fresh). An extensive and inspiring review paper has been published by Anna C. objective to report on Croce the use of enzymatic, histological, and other traditional methods, as to provide a general overview of the application of fluorescence in living organisms, well as spectral techniques conjunctionplants, withandchemometric tools for thewill detection includingin microorganisms, animals [81]. This review paper will provide an updated overview of practical applications of fluorescence spectroscopy in a specific research area, namely the discrimination between fresh and frozen-thawed foods, with a special focus to be placed on studies dealing with seafood and meat products, published over the last few years
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
