ED-XRF as screening tool to help customs laboratories in their fight against fraud. State-of-the-art

•ED-XRF is a suitable method for screening purposes in organic food control.•ED-XRF is a suitable method to authenticate geographical origin.•ED-XRF is a suitable method to authenticate botanical origin.•ED-XRF is a suitable method to detect the influence of manufacturing processes.•Multivariate analysis is fundamental to combine all available elemental information. The fight against fraud is highly demanding because research needs to adapt constantly to solve new specific problems, created by the endless fantasy of fraudsters to deceive consumers with the aim of increasing their economic profit. Customs laboratories need to have access to versatile technologies able to address different analytical questions, that allow fast analysis, if possible on-site, and that does not require highly qualified staff. Energy dispersive X-Ray fluorescence spectroscopy hardly requires any sample treatment, does not require the use of environmentally unfriendly reagents, can be applied to the multi-elemental characterisation of many different matrices using the same calibration curves, and can be used by not specialised staff on-site, using hand-held devices. In this work, the potential of the technique to authenticate products based on their geographical origin, botanical variety, manufacturing processes, and some intrinsic characteristics such as those left by organic and conventional agriculture, is demonstrated. [Display omitted]