Geographical traceability based on 87Sr/86Sr indicator: A first approach for PDO Lambrusco wines from Modena

•Several aspects for developing robust geographical traceability models were dealt.•The variability of 87Sr/86Sr in different bio available fractions of soils was studied.•87Sr/86Sr ratio was evaluated in different matrices of oenological food chains.•Optimal correspondence between the monitored indicator in plant and food is observed. The main goal of this study was to evaluate 87Sr/86Sr ratio in different matrices, namely soils, branches, and grape juices, of an oenological food chain in order to develop a robust analytical strategy able to link the investigated food to its territory of origin. The 87Sr/86Sr has been used as traceability marker and several aspects, affected its variability, i.e. geological features of the investigated area, the bio-available fraction of elements in the soils and the up-take of the plant, have been taken into account. Optimisation of an analytical procedure for the separation of Sr from its interferences and investigation of the analytical performances in terms of precision of used methodology have been carried out as well. This work highlighted a good match between the isotopic values monitored in the bio-available fraction of soils and their respective grape juices for almost all the investigated areas. The correlation with food satisfyingly improves when isotopic relative abundance values of branches vine are considered.