Untargeted fingerprinting of cider volatiles from different geographical regions by HS-SPME/GC-MS

The volatomic fingerprint of ciders produced in different geographical regions from Madeira Island was established using headspace solid phase microextraction combined with gas chromatography mass spectrometry (HS-SPME/GC-MS) in order to explore the effects of geographical region on the volatile pattern ciders in addition to identify potential molecular geographic markers. A total of 107 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) belonging to different chemical families were identified from which 50 VOCs are common to all ciders analysed. Significant differences in the relative content of VOCs from ciders of different geographical regions were observed. The potential of the identified VOCs for ciders discrimination according to region was assessed through chemometric tools, such as principal components analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The PCA showed significant differences among ciders from different island geographical regions. Fifteen VOCs responsible for ciders discrimination were identified by PLS-DA. Fifteen VOCs, namely five terpenoids, four alcohols, three acids and three esters, present variable importance in projection (VIP) values higher than one. Our findings provide relevant information related to volatile signature of ciders produced in Madeira Island, which may be a useful tool to cider-making process contributing to improve the quality of the final product. In addition, the geographical discrimination recognizes the unique and distinctive characteristics that will allow in the future to protect the quality and typicity of products originating in certain geographical regions.