Protecting specialty Italian bread from fraud

Researchers have developed a lab technique for authenticating a form of speciality Italian bread made from Regiokorn, which commands premium pricing and is considered a target for food fraud.

Regiokorn loaves are based on cereals such as wheat, spelt and rye that are cultivated in the South Tyrol province of Italy, an agricultural tradition that was almost driven to extinction due to cheap imports from overseas but rescued thanks to an EU-backed project that started in 2011.

Cereals are marketed for premium prices under the Regiokorn seal with the condition that they are cultivated in South Tyrol, without the use of pesticides and mineral fertilisers. Providing at least 75 per cent of the grain used in a bread is made from these cereals, the loaves made from them can carry a Regiokorn label and command up to four times the retail price of regular bread.

A team of researchers from Laimburg Research Centre and Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in Italy speculate that this could create incentives to adulterate bread with other, cheaper cereals for fraudulent financial gain.

set out to see if the ratios of strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) can be used to distinguish between traditional Regiokorn Alpine bread and lower-priced bread made with cereals from other regions.

Strontium isotope profiling has been used to detect food fraud and for traceability of other food types, including fruits and vegetables and processed foods like wine, cheese, cider and beer.

In the case of bread, they found that the 87Sr/86Sr isotopic ratio is determined not only by the flour used but also by other ingredients like water, salt and yeast, making it impossible to define a clear-cut ratio window for Regiokorn bread.

However, the researchers used a statistical technique, known as a dynamic confidence interval, that was able to compensate for the type and ratio of ingredients and would enable detection of fraudulent adulterations "with a high likelihood" – provided all ingredients are sampled and the recipe is known.

They now intend to carry out a feasibility study in collaboration with local bakeries to further refine the technique.

The research is published in the journal Food Chemistry.

Photo by Jonathan Pielmayer on Unsplash