Scientists from the Jozef Stefan Institute in Slovenia, with technical advice and analytical support from the IAEA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), are studying truffle composition in order to determine their origins and help detect fraud. Thanks to the database and the techniques developed, other laboratories worldwide can also test truffles, establish their geographical origin and verify their authenticity.

The cheats can be exposed with the help of chemical analysis: because the isotopic make-up of the various truffles grown in disparate parts of the world are different. This analysis helps reveal their origins. The Slovenian scientists created a reference database for truffles. This database includes a naturally occurring stable isotope ratio of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and strontium as well as the elemental and isotopic composition of authentic Slovenian truffle samples of the Tuber species (which includes calcium, cadmium, copper, iron, mercury, potassium, phosphorus, lead, aluminum, arsenic, barium, cobalt, chromium, cesium, magnesium, manganese, sodium, nickel, rubidium, sulfur, strontium, vanadium and zinc) from a range of geographical, geological and climatic origins

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Scientists Detect Fake Truffles – The World's Most Expensive Food | IAEA

Source: IAEA