Assessment of elemental profiling for distinguishing geographic origin of aquacultured shrimp from India, Thailand and Vietnam

- Elemental profiling could distinguish shrimp from different countries.
- Separation on a smaller scale was not as reliable as on the country scale.
- No definitive conclusion was made about which elements are best in traceability.

Shrimp from three major exporting countries - India, Vietnam, and Thailand - were identified to country of origin by elemental profiling. Concentrations of 23 elements, including essential macro- and micro-nutrients and non-essential trace elements, in headless shell on shrimp (HLSO) samples were analyzed by ICP-AES. Elemental concentrations in shrimp showed high variation. Multivariate statistics including principal component analysis, stepwise discriminant analysis, Kernel method, and canonical discriminant analysis demonstrated the validity of elemental profiling in distinguishing aquacultured shrimp from different countries. However, it was not possible to reach definitive conclusions about which elements are the best descriptors for each region. The method was also tested as a means of differentiating shrimp produced to area of origin for two areas in Thailand, three provinces in Vietnam and India. All the multivariate statistical analysis demonstrated that the separation on a smaller scale was not as reliable as on the country scale.