High-quality wine vinegars with unique organoleptic characteristics are produced in southern Spain under three Protected Designations of Origin (PDO), namely "Jerez", "Condado de Huelva" and "Montilla-Moriles". To guarantee their authenticity and avoid frauds, robust and low-cost analytical methodologies are needed for the quality control and traceability of vinegars. In this study, we propose the use of ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy in combination with multivariate statistical tools to discriminate Spanish wine vinegars according to their geographical origin, as well as to predict their physicochemical and functional properties. Linear discriminant analysis provided a clear clustering of vinegar samples according to the PDO with excellent classification performance (98.6%). Furthermore, partial least squares regression analysis demonstrated that spectral data can serve as accurate predictors of the total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of vinegars. Accordingly, UV-Vis spectroscopy stands out as a suitable analytical tool for simple and rapid authentication and traceability of vinegars.
Keywords: UV-Vis spectroscopy; authentication; prediction; protected designation of origin; vinegar.