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Metal(loid)s Profile of Four Traditional Ethiopian Teff Brands: Geographic Origin Discrimination

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Abstract

Among the most renowned Ethiopian food crops, teff (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.)Trotter) is the most nutritious and gluten-free cereal. Because of the increase in demand for teff, it is necessary to establish geographic origin authentication of traditional teff brands based on multi-element fingerprint. For this purpose, a total of 60 teff samples were analysed using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Accuracy of the laboratory procedure was verified by the analysis of rice flour standard reference material (NIST SRM 1568b). In this context, four traditional teff brands (Ada’a, Ginchi, Gojam and Tulu Bolo) were analytically characterized using multi-element fingerprint and further treated statistically using linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Due to obvious extrinsic Fe, Al and V contamination, these elements were excluded from the discriminant model. Five elements (Cu, Mo, Se, Sr, and Zn) significantly contributed to discriminate the geographical origin of white teff. On the other hand, Mn, Mo, Se and Sr were used as discriminant variables for brown teff. LDA revealed 90 and 100% correct classifications for white and brown teff, respectively. Overall, multi-element fingerprint coupled with LDA can be considered a suitable tool for geographic origin discrimination of traditional teff brands.

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Acknowledgements

The first author (DW) acknowledges the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program, sponsored by the United State Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Technical and administrative support provided by Josh Monk, Kazumasa Lindley, Carol Fimmen, Aster Yehdego, and Raven McKenzie is strongly acknowledged. We are grateful to Dr, Yohannes Misskire for the support during sample collection.

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  1. Department of Soil and Water Resources Management, Wollo University, Dessie, Ethiopia

    Desta Woldetsadik & Hillette Hailu

  2. College of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA

    Douglas B Sims & Mark C. Garner

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  1. Desta Woldetsadik
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Woldetsadik, D., Sims, D.B., Garner, M.C. et al. Metal(loid)s Profile of Four Traditional Ethiopian Teff Brands: Geographic Origin Discrimination. Biol Trace Elem Res 202, 1305–1315 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-023-03736-7

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