Pyrolysis-mass spectrometry for rapid classification of oysters according to rearing area

Current concern for the safety and traceability of food, as well as the des ire of oyster farmers, for marketing reason, to emphasise the geographical origin of their production, requires new methods to make possible a real pr oduct identification. In this study, 181 oyster samples were analysed to de termine their origin area. These samples were collected in nine French rear ing areas at four different times of the year (spring, summer, and the begi nning and end of autumn) and from four to eight sites in each area to provi de a variability parameter. Analysis of fingerprints after Curie point pyro lysis-mass spectrometry, by an artificial neural network gave a mean classi fication rate of 89%. Although the technique requires further improvements, it appears to be a useful discriminative tool for rapid identification of an oyster production area.