Abstract
The authenticity of dried shark fins was identified using stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic compositions, chemical structure, and morphology characterization by means of element analyzer-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (EA-IRMS), attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) analysis, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) characterization of samples. The results indicated that real dried shark fins, fake dried shark fins, and artificial dried shark fins could be easily distinguished from each other. δ 13C values of real dried shark fins, fake dried shark fins, and artificial dried shark fins were −14.231 ± 1.204‰, −17.247 ± 0.621‰, and −14.561 ± 1.016‰, respectively, and highly significant (P < 0.01) within real dried shark fins and fake dried shark fins. On the other hand, δ 15N values of artificial dried shark fins (6.860 ± 0.519‰) and real dried shark fins (13.501 ± 2.421‰) presented significant differences (P < 0.01). Considering the obvious differences of these samples with ATR-FTIR and SEM analysis, the combination of IRMS with ATR-FTIR and SEM technique has the advantage over traditional identification method to be relatively good in accuracy and applicability. Thus, these techniques could potentially be useful for dried shark fin identification.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by science and technology planning project of General Administration of Quality Supervision of China (2013QK278) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31371842). At the same time, the authors would like to thank all the workers for sampling, sample preparation, and measurement.
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Donghui Luo declares that he has no conflict of interest. Hao Dong declares that he has no conflict of interest. Yanping Xian declares that she has no conflict of interest. Yuluan Wu declares that she has no conflict of interest. Xiaofang Zeng declares that he has no conflict of interest.
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Luo, D., Dong, H., Xian, Y. et al. Stable Isotope Ratios Combined with Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscope Analysis to Identify the Dried Shark Fins. Food Anal. Methods 9, 2400–2405 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-016-0424-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-016-0424-7