Is the Romanian agro-food business ready to work hand-in-hand with the

research? A case study.

National Institute for Research and Development for

Isotopic and Molecular Technologies Cluj-Napoca

Cluj Innovation Days

19th – 20th of March, 2015

ISOTOPE RESEARCH AT INCDTIM Cluj-Napoca

– Separation - Labeled Compounds

– Applications of Stable Isotope

Ratios of “Bio-elements”

Why Agro - food business?

Romania’s huge potential to be competitive in agro-food aria

(both conventional and organic)

Quality of Romanian traditional products

Presence of adulterated food commodities on the market

Necessity to protect our national products and brands

The need to have certified products in the same quality system as

those from EU

Challenge is how to meet consumers' needs and preferences while

minimizing the related impact on health and environment.

Research and innovation will address food and feed security

and safety, the competitiveness of the European agro-food industry and

the sustainability of food production, processing and consumption.

Horizon 2020

The offered service is ISOTOPIC ANALYSE

Advantages:

It has the potential to make the difference where the

chemical analysis has not

There are only two laboratories in Romania which perform these

type of analysis

This analysis is recognized at EU level for food authenticity control

Accreditation and recognition:

RENAR accredited laboratory (ISO 17025:2005) for isotopic analysis

Recognized laboratory at EU level for Oficial Wine Control

Organic matter is composed mainly of: H, O, C and N.

Isotopic fingerprint

What are the stable isotopes?

Non-radioactive atoms of a given element that contains the same number of

protons in their nuclei, but different number of neutrons

Stable isotopes of an element differ in mass, but have essentially identical

chemical reactivity

Element Isotope Abundence

(%)

Hydrogen 1H 99,985

2H 0,015

Carbon 12C 98,89

13C 1,11

Oxigen

16O 99,759

17O 0,037

18O 0,204 2H/1H = 0.00015576… (SMOW)

2H/1H = 0.00015002… (Natural abundance)

Main factor that affects 18O value: the source of plant-available water

(groundwater).

Isotopic fractionation of water in the atmosphere

Additionally, the climate condition modify the transpiration of leaves and fruit, which

always causes an enrichment of the heavy oxygen isotopic content of plant water as

compared with groundwater. Other factors that affect the 18O value of water-wines

are: the harvesting date and the soil type.

Photosynthetic pathways:

C3 C4 CAM

Eg.: corn and cane Eg.: grape, beet Eg.: pineapple

Calderone G., Guillou C. (2008)

According to their photosynthetic path to incorporate CO2, due to different

physiologies, plant are classified as:

Isotope ratio analysis in wine authentication and fraud assessment

Watering

18O (IRMS)

Addition of C4 sugars/

ethanol

13C (IRMS)

Geographical origin

Production year

Romanian wines from 2008

-33

-32

-31

-30

-29

-28

-27

-26

-25

-24

-23

-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8

Muntenia

Oltenia

Banat

Transilvania

Crisana/Maramures

Moldova

Dobrogea

δ13Cvs.PDB

δ18Ovs.SMOW

-10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

-30

-28

-26

-24

-22

-20

-18

-16

-14

-12

Muntenia

Oltenia

Banat

Transilvania

Crisana, Maramures

Moldova

Dobrogea

Vinuri adulterate

Etanol strain

2002,2003, 2004

C

vsP

DB

18

OvsSMOW

Wine adulteration

Year Number of

analyzed samples

Reference

samples

Commercial

samples

Exogenous

ethanol

Added

water

2012 331 58

(vintage 2011) 273 95 79

2013 447 70

(vintage 2012) 377 88 97

2014 405 70

(vintage 2013) 335 42 50

Our experience on the wine market

Conclusion: there is a significant drop in wine adulteration

cases from 2012 to 2014 the strict control by isotopic

methods may have had an important contribution

5 Letters of Interest containing:

How isotopic fingerprint works

Which are the advantages of isotopic fingerprinting on product brands

Accreditation and recognition of our laboratory

Ways of collaboration

Experiment – can we extend also to other

market niches?

5 Inters letters

1. Tuica Zetea

Interest in:

Brand protection

Analysis for quality control

Research activities

2. Magiun Topoloveni

(Plums jam without added sugar)

Interest in:

Brand protection

Sugar detection

Research activities

3. Wines

1st. Contacted vineyard

Interest in:

NO INTEREST!!!!

2nd. Contacted vineyard

Interest in:

NO INTEREST!!!!

3rd. Contacted vineyard

Interest in:

NO INTEREST!!!!

Conclusions:

Products manufacturers holding the label of “traditional product” expressed

their interest in our methods

Surprisingly, the wine producers ignored the proposal, although our main

expertise is on wines – possible explanations:

1. their wines are sold anyway on the market, given the notoriety of the

owners

2. the proposed brand protection measures were not well understood

3. our marketing method was not appropriate for this type of producers?

Strategies

Efficient use of all communication channels in order to increase

our visibility

A better identification of the market needs

Direct contact with companies

Submitting of joint projects at national and EU calls

Thank you for your attention!

13C

12C

16O

12C

16O

16O

16O 13C

13C 13C

18O

18O

18O