Bromatological, analytical and chemometric assessment of animal and plant foods based on mineral composition

Abstract

There are several examples of numerous applications of analytical and multivariate techniques useful in investigations of varied assortment of food products. The successful use of chemometrics in study of food such as meat and its products, fish, seafood, milk and dairy products, honey, cereal products, oils, oilseeds and nuts, vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, tea, coffee, confectionary products, mineral waters and alcoholic beverages deserves attention. RDA indicated exceeded its normative values for Se, Cu, Mn, Fe and Cr in some groups of animal food and Cr, Mn, P and Fe in some assortment of plant food. Based on PTWI values for Pb, Cd and Hg, there is no threat to human health resulting from the consumption of the investigated food products. It is concluded that the proper use of analytical and chemometric tools is useful for assessing nutritive and health quality of animal and plant foods. They play an important role in quality control, and their classification in view of geographical origin, confection and degree of environmental pollution. Both, instrumental and multivariate techniques would be useable in differentiating unprocessed and technologically processed food as well as detecting fraud to preserve the brand name of the original product. The aim of this study is to give an overview of the crucial issues associated with the implementation of chemometrics in food research and development.