Discrimination of geographical origin of Korean and Chinese red pepper paste via inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy and mass spectrometry

Abstract

Abstract Background Red pepper paste is a common ingredient used in food in Korea. The discrimination of the geographical origin of agricultural products is important to protect the agricultural industry and customers from the misinformation regarding the product origin. Several studies have attempted to identify the geographical origin of red pepper based on its characteristic features using diverse methods, such as inorganic elemental analysis. However, similar studies on red pepper pastes have not been conducted thus far. Results In, this study, we established methods based on inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for determining inorganic elements in red pepper pastes. The limit of detection (LOD) of ICP-AES was in the range of 0.006–0.531 mg∙kg−1 and the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 0.017–1.593 mg∙kg−1. In addition, LOD and LOQ ranges for ICP-MS were 0.001–1.553, and 0.002–5.176 μg∙kg−1, respectively. The concentrations of Ca, K, Mg, Na, P, S, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Ga, As, Sr, Zr, Mo, Pd, Cd, Sn, Sb, Ce, Pt, Pb, and U were high in the Korean red pepper paste. All the employed discrimination models could clearly distinguish between Korean and Chinese red pepper pastes. In particular, among the four different models, CDA showed the most accurate ability to discriminate the geological origin of Korean and Chinese red pepper paste compared to that achieved using the other models with 100% accuracy. Conclusions Based on, the findings of this study, the use of ICP-AES and ICP-MS analyses for discriminating the inorganic elements in food products in combination with the aforementioned statistical analysis models could help the mitigation of issues associated with the misinformation of the geographical origin of agricultural products, aiding customer protection. Graphical Abstract