Chemometrics and Authenticity of Foods of Plant Origin

Book excerpt: One of the challenges facing the world is feeding the ever-increasing population, with food security being a growing 21st century problem. This stresses the need for coordinated international systems to prevent and mitigate food fraud in global food supply chains. Food fraud, which is usually financially motivated, has significant consequences including unfair competition, major damage to markets and organizations, loss of consumer confidence, and it raises food safety issues. A shift toward a more plant-based diet can be endorsed to promote sustainability but also to improve public health and minimize animal suffering. The aim of this book is to deal with issues related to authenticity and chemometrics of the most important food products of plant origin, such as cereals, nuts, legumes, table olives and olive oil, coffee, tea, fruits and vegetables, fruit juices, spices, mushrooms, beers and wines, and honey, using state-of-the-art analytical techniques and instrumentation coupled with available chemometric tools.