Recognition of organic rice samples based on trace elements and support vector machines

•19 trace elements were determined in rice samples by ICP-MS.•Authenticity of organic rice samples can be demonstrated via chemometrics.•Rice is classified with 98% of accuracy by using SVM and the mineral levels.

A simple approach is proposed for the authentication of organic rice samples. The strategy combines levels of concentration of trace elements and a data mining technique known as support vector machine (SVM). Nineteen elements (As, B, Ba, Ca, Cd, Ce, Cr, Co, Cu, Fe, La, Mg, Mn, Mo, P, Pb, Rb, Se and Zn) were determined in organic (n = 17) and conventional (n = 33) rice samples by quadrupole inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (q-ICP-MS) and the variations found in their elemental composition resulted in profiles with useful information for classification purposes. With the proposed methodology, it was possible to predict the authenticity of organic rice samples with an accuracy of 98% when using the 19 original elements. An accuracy of 96% was found using only the elements Ca and Cd.