Discrimination between Southern Italy and foreign milk samples using spectroscopic and analytical data

Determination of the geographical origin of foodstuffs is becoming of increasing interest to consumers and producers, since it may be used as a criterion for certifying quality, authenticity and typicality.The Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) trademark has been assigned to numerous local products based strictly on their area of origin. In order to obtain this designation, the raw materials must have been produced and processed in the specific region from which the product gets its name.In Apulia, a region of Southern Italy, the production of cow milk obtained from autochthonous animals bred in local farms is very important, and cow Apulian mozzarella is a fresh and stringy-textured cheese made from this local milk. In order to protect the authenticity of this dairy product, the geographical origin of the milk must be determined.In this work, classical techniques, high performance ion chromatography (HPIC), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) were used in combination with chemometric methods for determining a number of compounds and, hence, the geographical origin of Southern Italy and foreign cow milk samples.