Food identification by high performance liquid chromatography fingerprinting and mathematical processing

Food fingerprinting methods comprise a wide range of analytical strategies for obtaining analytical signals such as spectra or chromatograms that can be related to the composition of foodstuffs. Mathematical processing of fingerprints in such signals allows some foodstuffs to be characterized and/or authenticated. This paper deals at length with food identification by High Performance Liquid Chromatography in combination with mathematical processing. Also, it discusses existing approaches to the integrated acquisition of chromatographic signals and chemometric processing of chromatographic data, and illustrates the uses of fingerprinting methods for different types of foodstuffs.