Precipitation isotopic information: A tool for building the data base to verify milk geographical origin traceability

Isotopic composition of milk is affected by various environmental factors one of which is precipitation. Therefore, an attempt was made to investigate the effectiveness of precipitation isotopic information in order to build milk geographical origin data base. It was observed that there was significantly high correlation between delta H-2 data and delta O-18 data of milk with that of the precipitation as well as correlations between C and N content in the milk with that of latitude which enables clustering of milk samples based on their geographical origin. Meanwhile, H and O isotopic data were used as a potential tool for building database for geographical traceability of milk. As a conclusion, by applying factorial analysis a clear separation based on region of origin was observed which enables the grouping of samples in two clusters, namely north and south.