Authentication of Alicante’s Mountain cherries protected designation of origin by their mineral profile

Chemometric analysis of inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) data was employed to verify the origin of cherry samples of different areas of Spain: Aragón, Cáceres, Castellón, Huesca and Alicante’s Mountain Protected Geographic Indication (PGI). The ability of multivariate analysis methods, such as discriminant analysis (DA), was used to achieve cherry classification from their mineral content. The study was performed using 22 variables (concentrations of Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, Pb, Se, Sr, Ti and Te) and 23 variables (concentrations of Al, As, B, Ba, Be, Bi, Ca, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Li, Mg, Mo, Na, Ni, Pb, Se, Sr, Ti, Tl and V), for cherry stone and edible part, respectively, and the best discrimination was found on using edible part mineral composition which permits a correct classification of 100% of the considered samples.