ABSTRACT
Contents 39.1 Introduction: Stable Isotopes in Food Traceability and Consumer Protection ..............768 39.2 Isotope Discriminations of Bioelements and Information from
Resulting Isotope Ratios in Biomass .............................................................................769 39.2.1 Contributions by Primary Materials and Elemental Cycles ........................... 770
39.2.1.1 Hydrogen and Oxygen and Th eir Isotopes .................................... 770 39.2.1.2 Carbon and Isotopes ..................................................................... 771 39.2.1.3 Nitrogen and Isotopes ................................................................... 771 39.2.1.4 Sulfur and Isotopes ....................................................................... 772 39.2.1.5 Minor and Trace Elements and Th eir Isotopes .............................. 772
39.2.2 Infl uences of Animal Nutrition on Meat Isotope Characteristics .................. 773 39.2.2.1 Particularities of Meat Tissue Water and Infl uences
of Meat Processing and Conservation ........................................... 773 39.2.2.2 Trophic Shift, Nutritional State of Animals, Half-Life
and Kind of Tissues ...................................................................... 776 39.2.2.3 Diet Diff erences: Conventional and Organic
Meat Production ........................................................................... 777 39.2.3 Particularities of Individual Meat Ingredients and in
Defi ned Molecular Positions ......................................................................... 778
39.3 Meat Sample Preparation and Isotope Ratio Analysis .................................................. 778 39.3.1 Light Elements: Pretreatment and Fractionation of Samples ......................... 778 39.3.2 Combustion and Multielement Isotope Ratio Measurement
of Organic Material and of Tissue Water ...................................................... 779 39.3.3 Sample Preparation and Isotope Analysis of Minor and Trace Elements ....... 780 39.3.4 Presentation and Statistical Analysis of Results ............................................. 780
39.4 Conclusion and Future Aspects ....................................................................................782 Acknowledgment .....................................................................................................................783 Notes .......................................................................................................................................783 References ............................................................................................................................... 784
Th e stable isotope ratios of the main elements of organic compounds and biomass (bioelements H, C, N, O, and S) are predominantly determined by their individual primary compounds and the conditions of their (bio)synthesis. Th erefore, they preserve the history of the compounds’ origin and are analyzed for its reconstruction. In contrast, concentrations and isotope ratios of secondary or trace elements record the local geological particularities of the origin. Th e information thus obtained is of fundamental importance for the investigation of environmental, ecological, archeological, and nutritional questions and of forensic background and last but not the least of food authenticity and origin assessment.1,2 Th e latter application has originally been used for the authenticity check of fruit juices, wine and spirits, fl avors and honey, mainly on the basis of the carbon isotopes of sugars and organic acids and of oxygen isotopes of water from these products. Since 1995 quality check analyses on the basis of isotope ratio analyses have become common for origin and authenticity investigations on animal products such as milk,3 butter,4 cheese,5 eggs,1 and meat.6
