Recent Developments in Application of Stable Isotope and Multi-element Analysis on Geographical Origin Traceability of Cereal Grains

Abstract

With the development of cereal grain market and convenient transportation of food all over the world, the potential for distribution of mislabeled products increases accordingly, highlighting the need of consumers pursuing for high-quality cereal grains with a clear geographical origin identity. Appropriate analytical methods to ensure a fair competition among producers and to protect consumers against fraud are extremely required. Currently, stable isotope ratio analysis and multi-element analysis gradually become the promising approaches for cereal grain traceability. In recent years, a growing number of research papers have been published on tracing cereal grains by stable isotope ratio and multi-element analysis combining with other instruments. In these reports, the global variety of stable isotope compositions has been investigated, including light elements such as C, N, H, O, and S, and heavy isotopes variation such as Sr and B; in addition, more than 50 elements were applied in the geographical origin analysis of cereal grain and favorable results were obtained. In the present paper, an overview about geographical origin traceability of cereal grain by stable isotope ratio analysis and multi-element analysis is provided.