Authentication of Greek Protected Designation of Origin cheeses through elemental metabolomics

Greek Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) cheeses are characterised by high nutritional values and origin traits. The aim of the study was to determine the content of 65 elements, of Greek PDO cheeses, through inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and examine the elemental metabolome as a potential authenticity marker. One hundred twelve samples from 21 PDO, one potential PDO and nine non-PDO cheeses were assessed. Discriminant analysis based on total fingerprinting was able to determine the geographic origin with 99.1% accuracy. The most significant variables of the model were Ce, Dy, Eu, Gd, Ho, La, Nd, Pr, Sm, Tb, Y, Yb, Pd, As, Ba, Co, Fe, Ga, Mo, Ni, Ti, Zr, Ca and P. The results demonstrate that elemental metabolomics can be successfully applied for cheese authentication. The elemental fingerprint could provide a reliable discrimination while rare earth elements are promising authenticity markers.