Identification of the geographical origins of sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) in northern China by using stable isotope ratios and fatty acid profiles

•Two technologies of stable isotope ratio and FA profiles were applied in this study.•PCA and DA were performed to evaluate their performance in classification.•δ13C, δ15N and individual FA were used to distinguish sea cucumber from different regions.•Results indicate that use of the two technologies combined with multivariate statistical analysis is promising.

Geographic traceability is an important issue for food quality and safety control of seafood. In this study,δ13C and δ15N values, as well as fatty acid (FA) content of 133 samples of A. japonicus from seven sampling points in northern China Sea were determined to evaluate their applicability in the origin traceability of A. japonicus. Principal component analysis (PCA) and discriminant analysis (DA) were applied to different data sets in order to evaluate their performance in terms of classification or predictive ability. δ13C and δ15N values could effectively discriminate between different origins of A. japonicus. Significant differences in the FA compositions showed the effectiveness of FA composition as a tool for distinguishing between different origins of A. japonicus. The two technologies, combined with multivariate statistical analysis, can be promising methods to discriminate A. japonicus from different geographical areas.