One of the challenges facing the world is feeding the ever-increasing population, with food security being a growing 21st century problem. This stresses the need for coordinated international systems to prevent and mitigate food fraud in global food supply chains. Food fraud, which is usually financially motivated, has significant consequences including unfair competition, major damage to markets and organizations, loss of consumer confidence, and it raises food safety issues. A shift toward a more plant-based diet can be endorsed to promote sustainability but also to improve public health and minimize animal suffering. The aim of this book is to deal with issues related to authenticity and chemometrics of the most important food products of plant origin, such as cereals, nuts, legumes, table olives and olive oil, coffee, tea, fruits and vegetables, fruit juices, spices, mushrooms, beers and wines, and honey, using state-of-the-art analytical techniques and instrumentation coupled with available chemometric tools.

One of the challenges facing the world is feeding the ever-increasing population, with food security being a growing 21st century problem. This stresses the need for coordinated international systems to prevent and mitigate food fraud in global food supply chains. Food fraud, which is usually financially motivated, has significant consequences including unfair competition, major damage to markets and organizations, loss of consumer confidence, and it raises food safety issues. A shift toward a more plant-based diet can be endorsed to promote sustainability but also to improve public health and minimize animal suffering. The aim of this book is to deal with issues related to authenticity and chemometrics of the most important food products of plant origin, such as cereals, nuts, legumes, table olives and olive oil, coffee, tea, fruits and vegetables, fruit juices, spices, mushrooms, beers and wines, and honey, using state-of-the-art analytical techniques and instrumentation coupled with available chemometric tools.

Food is adulterated to increase profit or due to negligence. Adulteration can compromise food safety and quality, and harm consumers. This may undermine consumer trust and the reputation of the food industry. As such, it is very important to monitor, control and detect adulteration. A number of techniques have been developed for the authentication of food and verifying its quality and associated claims. Foods of plant origin are the source of nutrients for billions of people around the globe. Due to the huge variety of plants, and the lack of visual characteristics as a result of processing, advanced techniques are required to detect adulteration. This book reviews the latest developments in the field of authenticity of foods of plant origin, examining concepts such as traceability, and how they are applied to facilitate the support of claims, as well as legislative requirements in the major economies around the world. The basic techniques used nowadays in verifying authenticity of these types of foods are reviewed and discussed, and their applications are summarized. The book also focuses on categories of foods most prone to adulteration attempts due to their characteristics, properties and production methods commonly followed, thus allowing the reader to more easily identify the chapter that is of interest in each case. The book will be of interest to food industrialists, chemists, quality control scientists and technologists, microbiologists, analytical chemists and food physical chemists within the food industry. It is also aimed at academicians who are interested in the authenticity of foods of plant origin and the advancements in the analytical fields that support relevant legal and marketing requirements.

Over the last 20-30 years the number of food poisoning incidents has increased considerably and this has had disastrous effects both on consumers and the food industry. Several food industries went bankrupt due to huge amounts of money paid to compensate consumers' family/relatives. These unfortunate incidents triggered consumer and governmental aw

This edited book provides an overview of existing and emerging gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) based methods for the authentication and fraud detection in all major food groups and beverages. Split in four parts, the book opens with a comprehensive introduction into the GC/MS technique and a summary of relevant statistical and mathematical models for data analysis. The main parts focus on the authentication of the main food groups (cereals, dairy products, fruit, meat, etc.) and beverages (e.g., coffee, tea, wine and beer). The chapters in these sections follow a distinct structure describing the nutritional value of the product, common fraud practices, economic implications and relevant biomarkers for the authentication process, such as volatile compounds, fatty acids, amino acids, isotope ratios etc. The final chapter provides an outlook on where the methodologies and the applications may be heading for. Food fraud is serious problem that affects food industries of all kinds, which is why food authentication plays an increasingly important role. This book aims to serve as a knowledge base for all researchers in academia, regulatory laboratories and industry employing GC/MS for food analysis. Due to its comprehensive introduction and consistent structure, it can also serve as an excellent resource for students in food science, food technology, food chemistry and nutrition.

It is now well accepted that the consumption of plant-based foods is beneficial to human health. Fruits, vegetables, grains, and derived products can be excellent sources of minerals, vitamins, and fiber and usually have a favorable nutrient-to-energy ratio. Furthermore, plant foods are also a rich source of phytochemicals such as polyphenols, carotenoids, and betalains, with potential health benefits for humans. Many epidemiological studies have made a direct link between the consumption of plant foods and health. Human intervention studies have also shown that higher intake/consumption of plant foods can reduce the incidence of metabolic syndrome and other chronic diseases, especially in at-risk populations such as obese people. In addition to its health benefits, plant foods are also used as functional ingredients in food applications such as antioxidants, antimicrobials, and natural colorants. The Special Issue “Foods of Plant Origin” covers biodiscovery, functionality, the effect of different cooking/preparation methods on bioactive (plant food) ingredients, and strategies to improve the nutritional quality of plant foods by adding other food components using novel/alternative food sources or applying non-conventional preparation techniques.