Chemometric tools for determining site-specific elemental and strontium isotopic fingerprints in raw and salted sturgeon caviar

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Anastassiya Tchaikovsky
  • Andreas Zitek
  • Rudolf Scheiber
  • Karl Moder
  • Leonardo Congiu

External Organisational units

  • FFoQSI GmbH
  • Universität Wien
  • Department for Marine Bioanalytical Chemistry, Helmholtz Centre for Materials and Coastal Research, Institute for Coastal Research
  • BOKU
  • University of Padova

Abstract

This study presents a chemometric protocol for the determination of site-specific elemental and strontium isotopic fingerprints in sturgeon caviar. The elemental and strontium isotopic composition of water, fish feed, salt, raw (i.e., unsalted) and salted sturgeon caviar samples from six fish farms in Europe and Iran was determined by (multi-collector) inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry ((MC) ICP–MS). Multiple linear regression revealed six site-specific markers absorbed from water into sturgeon caviar (n(87Sr)/n(86Sr) isotope ratio and content of Na, Mn, Cu, Mo, Fe/Ca). Salting changed the chemical composition of four (n(87Sr)/n(86Sr), Na, Mn, Fe/Ca) of the six site-specific markers significantly. Washing of salted caviar could not fully remove the influence of salt on the affected site-specific markers. Therefore, a novel mathematical procedure based on mass balance calculations was developed for determining the n(87Sr)/n(86Sr) isotope ratio absorbed from water into sturgeon caviar. The resulting variable is an estimate for the environmental strontium isotopic signal and independent of the production process. Hierarchical cluster analysis showed that the combination of the mathematically determined n(87Sr)/n(86Sr) isotope ratio of water in sturgeon caviar and two site-specific markers, which were not affected by salting (Cu, Mo), allowed differentiating salted caviar samples from six fish farms into five distinct clusters. The proposed combination of statistical and mathematical tools provides the basis for origin determination of salted sturgeon caviar using site-specific elemental and strontium isotopic fingerprints, even in cases where the initial environmental signature was altered by the production process.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2515-2528
Number of pages14
JournalEuropean food research and technology
Volume245.2019
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 20 Sept 2019