ABSTRACT
We discuss how different accelerator-based techniques can be employed synergistically as a powerful analytical tool for forensic studies of foodstuff. Brazilian and Jamaican coffees were chosen as a showcase due to its popularity and potential risk of adulteration and/or falsification. Comprehensive characterization of major and trace elements, age since production and compound contents were achieved using different techniques, including PIXE (Particle-Induced X-ray Emission), FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared), and AMS-14C (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry - Radiocarbon Analysis). While PIXE provides information on the elements present in the samples, FTIR probes the types of compounds through their vibrational spectra. Finally, AMS-14C is capable of dating organic samples regarding their harvesting time. Five different laboratories from research institutions around the world took part in the experiments. The integration of the results obtained with different techniques provided multifaceted perspectives on the coffee under study, thus allowing a direct assessment of the material for forensic purposes such as authentication, determination of provenance, and combat counterfeiting.
Subject(s)
Coffee , Trace Elements , Brazil , Drug Contamination , Mass Spectrometry/methodsABSTRACT
Surface winds and surface ocean hydrography in the subpolar North Atlantic appear to have been influenced by variations in solar output through the entire Holocene. The evidence comes from a close correlation between inferred changes in production rates of the cosmogenic nuclides carbon-14 and beryllium-10 and centennial to millennial time scale changes in proxies of drift ice measured in deep-sea sediment cores. A solar forcing mechanism therefore may underlie at least the Holocene segment of the North Atlantic's "1500-year" cycle. The surface hydrographic changes may have affected production of North Atlantic Deep Water, potentially providing an additional mechanism for amplifying the solar signals and transmitting them globally.
