Current developments in portable photonic devices for fast authentication of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) or EVOO with non-EVOO additions steer towards hyphenation of different optic technologies. The multiple spectra or so-called “fingerprints” of samples are then analyzed with multivariate statistics. For EVOO authentication, one-class classification (OCC) to identify “out-of-class” EVOO samples in combination with data-fusion is applicable. Prospecting the application of a prototype photonic device (“PhasmaFood”) which hyphenates visible, fluorescence, and near-infrared spectroscopy in combination with OCC modelling to classify EVOOs and discriminate them from other edible oils and adulterated EVOOs. EVOOs were adulterated by mixing in 10–50% (v/v) of refined and virgin olive oils, olive-pomace olive oils, and other common edible oils. Samples were analyzed by the hyphenated sensor. OCC, data-fusion, and decision thresholds were applied and optimized for two different scenarios. By high-level data-fusion of the classification results from the three spectral databases and several multivariate model vectors, a 100% correct classification of all pure edible oils using OCC in the first scenario was found. Reducing samples being falsely classified as EVOOs in a second scenario, 97% of EVOOs adulterated with non-EVOO olive oils were correctly identified and ones with other edible oils correctly classified at score of 91%. Photonic sensor hyphenation in combination with high-level data fusion, OCC, and tuned decision thresholds delivers significantly better screening results for EVOO compared to individual sensor results. Hyphenated photonics and its data handling solutions applied to extra virgin olive oil authenticity testing was found to be promising.

Consumers’ interest in the way meat is produced is increasing in Europe. The resulting free range and organic meat products retail at a higher price, but are difficult to differentiate from their counterparts. To ascertain authenticity and prevent fraud, relevant markers need to be identified and new analytical methodology developed. The objective of this pilot study was to characterize pork belly meats of different animal welfare classes by their fatty acid (Fatty Acid Methyl Ester—FAME), non-volatile compound (electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry—ESI-MS/MS), and volatile compound (proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry—PTR-MS) fingerprints. Well-defined pork belly meat samples (13 conventional, 15 free range, and 13 organic) originating from the Netherlands were subjected to analysis. Fingerprints appeared to be specific for the three categories, and resulted in 100%, 95.3%, and 95.3% correct identity predictions of training set samples for FAME, ESI-MS/MS, and PTR-MS respectively and slightly lower scores for the validation set. Organic meat was also well discriminated from the other two categories with 100% success rates for the training set for all three analytical approaches. Ten out of 25 FAs showed significant differences in abundance between organic meat and the other categories, free range meat differed significantly for 6 out of the 25 FAs. Overall, FAME fingerprinting presented highest discrimination power.

In a mycotoxin-dedicated total diet study (mTDS) performed in the autumn and winter of 2013 in the Netherlands, 48 mycotoxins, including patulin, aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, fumonisins, zearalenone, trichothecenes, ergot alkaloids,Alternaria toxins, beauvericin and enniatins, were quantified. Analyses were performed in 88 composite samples representative for the consumption pattern of the Dutch population. This article presents the results of the exposure assessment and subsequent risk assessment of these mycotoxins. Exposure was assessed by combining individual food consumption data obtained from the Dutch National Food Consumption Surveys (DNFCS) for young children aged 2-6 years and the population aged 7-69 years with the analytical results of the mTDS, using a lower bound and an upper bound scenario for levels below the limit of detection. Wherever possible, exposure estimates were compared with toxicological reference values, including health-based guidance values. The high level of exposure (95^th percentile) exceeded the toxicological reference value regardless of the substitution scenario for ochratoxin A in the population aged 7-69 years, for the sum of T-2 and HT-2 toxins for children aged 2-6 years and for alternariol and alternariol monomethyl ether in both examined populations. The margin of exposure was too small for aflatoxin B₁. For the remaining 23 mycotoxins with a toxicological reference value, the estimated exposure was below this level.

To explore relationships between the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of different grades of olive oils (OOs) (extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), refined olive oil (ROO), and pomace olive oil (POO)) and odor quality, VOCs were measured in the headspace of the oils by proton transfer reaction quadrupole ion guide time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The concentrations of most VOCs differed significantly between the grades (EVOO > ROO > POO), whereas the abundance of m/z 47.012 (formic acid), m/z 49.016 (fragments), m/z 49.027 (fragments), and m/z 115.111 (heptanal/heptanone) increased in that order. Although the refined oils had considerably lower VOC abundance, the extent of the decline varied with the VOCs. This results in differences in VOCs proportions. The high VOC abundance in the EVOO headspace in comparison to ROO and POO results in a richer and more complex odor. The identified C5–C6 compounds are expected to contribute mainly to the green odor notes, while the identified C1–C4 and C7–C15 are mainly responsible for odor defects of OOs. Current results reveal that processing strongly affects both the quantitative and relative abundance of the VOCs and, therefore, the odor quality of the various grades of OOs.