Determining the geographic origin of caper in Aeolian Islands by geochemical analysis

Caper is one of the most renowned Italian products in the world. For this reason, it is important to develop a scientific method for determining geographic origin to safeguard this product of “Made in Italy”. To identify the relationship between geochemistry of soil and chemical composition of caper, a geochemical characterization of caper from Aeolian Islands, was performed. The Aeolian Islands are recognized to be an important place of caper production due to favourable environmental conditions such as Mediterranean climate, the volcanic soil and exposure to wind and sea spray deposition (Barbera & Di Lorenzo 1982). All these features permit to define the geographic context and the territoriality of agricultural products. The sites tested refer to three cultivations area located in Lipari and Salina. The studied areas in the Island of Lipari, Lami and Pianogreca, belong to the Pomiciazzo and Pianoconte Formation respectively (Forni et al., 2013), while the area of Salina Island, Leni, is on colluvial deposits produced by erosion of the Formations Punta Fontanelle, Pianoconte and Serra di Sciarato (Lucchi et al., 2013). Geologic features of the production area, such as soil type, are assumed to be important factors affecting the determination of origin (Bong et al., 2013). We detected the relationship between major and trace elements in soil and their concentration in caper according to geographic origin. Major and trace elements were investigated by x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Data were elaborated with multivariate statistics (Principal Component Analysis, PCA). The analyses of soil by XRF and ICP-MS allowed us to geologically characterize each one of the three areas and to determine a chemical composition of major and trace elements in caper. By the geochemical and statistical analyses we discriminated the soils according to geo-lithological characteristics of each area and identified possible geochemical fingerprint of caper in the Islands of Lipari and Salina.