Authenticity of Complex Foods: A Targeted Metabolomics Study of Authenticity Markers of Chía, Flax and Sesame Seeds in Bakery Products

DANIEL WUNDERLIN; FEDERICO BRIGANTE; AGUSTÍN LUCINI MAS; NATALIA PIGNI; PABLO RIBOTTA; VERÓNICA BARONI

Porto

Conferencia; XX EuroFoodChem Conference; 2019

Food fraud is committed with increasing frequency in the food industry and the need of tools to detectit, is a current concern for producers. [1] Chia, flax and sesame are mainly known by their oils, but alsothey are rich in antioxidant compounds (Polyphenols). These molecules prevent cell aging and the riskof having some diseases such as diabetes, cancer, Parkinson´s and Alzheimer´s. [2] Because of thesepositive effects, it is important to verify their presence in food, but there is a lack of knowledge regardingauthenticity of these seeds. This creates the need to differentiate them through the determination ofbiomarkers.The aim of this work was to generate a method to determine the presence of chia, flax and sesameseeds in bakery products using polyphenols as markers. Then, the markers found in seeds weresearched in cookies made at our research facility [3] to determine which compounds resisted theprocessing. After that, to evaluate the usefulness of the methodology, markers found in our cookieswere searched in different commercial bakery products containing the seeds (sweet cookies, crackers,bread, puff pastry dough and breadsticks).44 polyphenols were tentatively identified and quantified in the seeds by HPLC-ESI-qTOF (MS/MS) innegative mode. [4] Multivariate statistical methods were performed and 12 compounds were proposedas novel markers. Rosmarinic acid, sesaminol dihexoside and eriodictyol hexoside were proposed forchia, sesame and flax seeds respectively, among others. All of these compounds were found in cookieswith seeds added at different percentages, meaning that these compounds resisted processing and theyare able to be used as markers of the seeds in complex foods.These markers were also evaluated in commercial cookies, added with different types and percentagesof seeds. We found five of the markers that were proposed in our method, and certify the presence ofthe seeds (what was declared in the labels).In conclusion we were able to develop a targeted metabolomic method suitable for the determination ofthe presence of chia, sesame and flax seeds in bakery products.