REEs – a possible tool for geographical origin assessment?

Abstract

Environmental contextRare earth element profiles of foodstuffs reflect both the soil fingerprint and the specific agricultural practice for a certain location. This review describes the advantages and limitations of using rare earth elements as markers for geographical discrimination as a function of food matrix. The technique has great potential for establishing the geographical origin of foodstuffs. AbstractThe present work aims to present the application of the content of rare earth elements (REEs) in the authentication of food and beverage studies, mainly regarding the geographical origin. Therefore, the potential, as well as the limitation, of these emerging markers are separately presented for different food matrices. It is observed that for most of the discussed matrices, the highest discrimination potential is provided by the LREEs (light REEs). It has also been suggested in the literature that the content of REEs is minimally affected by harvesting years, which enhances the potential to differentiate between samples from different origins. Reported studies have shown that the efficiency of the REEs profile is the most effective for the unprocessed food matrix (e.g. vegetables, fruits and meat) and has a low efficiency for commodities like wine, which suggests that the fractionation of REEs that occurs during the wine making process limits the use of these elements as geographical tracers.