Advances in authenticity testing of geographical origin of food products

Ongoing consumer demands and greater labeling specifications regarding the geographical origin of foods have driven advanced research efforts using existing and new technologies in the last decade in this area of interest. In this chapter, an update is provided on state-of-the-art equipment and research on confirming the provenance of foods by a range of analytical means. Recent advances in isotopic and atomic analysis, compositional analysis using separation techniques, and (semi-)nondestructive techniques are discussed. Most often, the data produced require advanced statistical methods in order to extract the origin-related analytical properties and to allow eventual assessment of the food product’s origin.