Traceability of Opuntia spp.

Traceability has established itself as an essential tool of the agri-food business to improve consumers’ safety and confidence and support regulatory authorities in food control and fraud detection. Indeed, traceability has extensively demonstrated to profitably unmask frauds in terms of adulteration, species or even cultivar substitution, and not least, product provenance, by combining a variety of advanced analytical techniques with chemometrics. In this chapter, the state-of-the-art of Opuntia ssp. traceability is discussed with particular emphasis to the species Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Miller and its cultivars, originating from the Mediterranean area. At an earlier stage, studies chemically characterized fruits of the prickly pear cactus and its derived products (i.e., fruit juice and seed oil), already pointing out peculiar compositional profiles in dependence of the geographical provenance or even cultivar. However, only recently, the screening of minerals, volatile and phenolic compounds, was combined with the multivariate statistical analysis in an attempt to purposely trace the geographical origin of O. ficus-indica, as well as the cultivar it belongs. Overall, the traceability platforms designed so far may play a vital role in the product quality and safety assurance system. They revealed to preserve the authenticity of products from O. ficus-indica successfully, thus, protecting consumers against mislabeling and false information.