Recent trends of multi-source and non-destructive information for quality authentication of herbs and spices

Abstract

The growing concerns about the quality and safety of herbs and spices among consumers have increased the demand for technical testing. Recently, non-destructive analysis techniques have been widely studied and applied. Generally, a single technology has certain limitations, which are not enough to fully describe the characteristics of complex products (dynamic or complex structure). Combining non-destructive analysis technology (multi-source information) can overcome the above problems. The present review focused on applying multi-source and non-destructive information on herbs and spices quality authentication, including vibration spectroscopy and electronic sensor technologies. Then summarized and analyzed the authentication process for issues such as adulteration, contents prediction, geographical traceability, process and products analysis, and identification variety. Additionally, we presented trends in quality authentication, discussed the challenges and prospects, and made recommendations. This investigation provided clear evidence for the superiority of the quality authentication methods for herbs and spices based on multi-source and non-destructive information.

Keywords: Data fusion; Data processing; Herbs and spices; Multi-source information; Non-destructive techniques; Quality authentication.