Peptide fingerprint of high quality Campania white wines by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

Food traceability is essential to preserve the identity of unique quality traits against frauds or commercial disputes, Therefore, there is a growing demand of new traceability systems for the collection of information related to units/batches of food ingredients and products. A rapid method based on peptide profiles obtained from tryptic digests of whole wine proteins by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry is described. Reliable peptide fingerprints were obtained for high quality Campania white wines, providing a signature Of the finished products. The MALDI spectra revealed the presence of common diagnostic ions, but also evidenced differences between wines. Furthermore, the MALDI-TOF spectral traces were converted into Simulated images to obtain a graphical representation of spectra. the resulting "mass codes" Constitute a simple tool to display differences between samples, Suggesting their potential use as "biological bar codes" for food authenticity and traceability, probably applicable to other classes of certified food products. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.