NIR spectroscopy and chemometrics for the typification of Spanish wine vinegars with a protected designation of origin

3 Tablas.-- 3 Figuras.-- 2 Figuras suplementariasHigh-quality wine vinegars protected by the indication “Protected Designation of Origin” (PDO) need efficient tools to protect their brands and prevent adulteration and unfair competition. In this sense, Near-Infrared spectroscopy (NIRs) combined with chemometrics has demonstrated its usefulness in food authentication. This work assessed NIRs and Chemometrics as a rapid and non-destructive methodology for this purpose. In this study, 83 high-quality wine vinegars of the Spanish PDOs “Vinagre de Jerez” “Vinagre de Condado de Huelva” and “Vinagre de Montilla-Moriles” of different categories, and 11 wine vinegars without PDO, were analyzed in the range 12000-4000 cm. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to explore the spectra and Partial Least Squares-Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) was used to build classification models. The high ability of prediction obtained (>90% correct classification) demonstrated the usefulness of this methodology for authentication of PDO wine vinegars and their categories.The authors would like to thank the Spanish Regulatory Councils of the wine vinegars PDOs for their invaluable help with the acquisition of the samples for the study. Authors also thank University of Copenhagen, specifically to Professor Franciscus Winfried J van der Berg and the department of food science for providing the equipment and their knowledge in the methodology. This work was supported by “Consejeria de Economía, Innovación y Ciencia” of “Junta de Andalucia” [P12-AGR-1601], and “Ministerio de Educación Cultura y Deporte” (MECD, Spanish Government) for the FPU pre-doctoral fellowship [grant number FPU2014/01247]