Due to its ease of sample preparation and rapid processing speed, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has emerged as a promising new technique for food analysis. Food adulteration detection is critical for fair trade and protecting customers from food fraud. As a result, there is a high demand for a rapid and portable detection method for authenticating and evaluating the safety of marketed food and beverage products. An increased prevalence of food fraud which frequently entails the substitution of inferior ingredients for high-quality products has necessitated the development of innovative measures for detecting and preventing fraud. In this report, we describe an authentication approach utilizing a custom designed benchtop LIBS system. We focused on high-value regional food products such as European alpine-style cheeses and Italian balsamic vinegars. Liquid samples were measured on paper without any pretreatment, and solid samples were ablated directly on the sample surface by LIBS. The pre-processed LIBS spectra were utilized for training and validating various classifiers for sample categorization and validation. The development of an elastic net (ENET) classification model is also reported in the study. In summary, our research highlighted the potential of the LIBS technique combined with chemometric methods for solid and liquid high-value food authenticity certification. The results show that LIBS enables rapid analysis and accurate food sample classification without the requirement for sample pretreatment.
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