Determination of speciality food salt origin by using 16S rDNA fingerprinting of bacterial communities by PCReDGGE: An application on marine salts produced in solar salterns from the French Atlantic Ocean Laurent Dufossé a, * , Clara Donadio a , Alain Valla b , Jean-Christophe Meile c , Didier Montet c a Université de La Réunion, Laboratoire de Chimie des Substances Naturelles et des Sciences des Aliments, Ecole Supérieure d’Ingénieurs Réunion Océan Indien, Département Innovation et Développement Agroalimentaire Intégré, 2 rue Joseph Wetzell, Parc Technologique Universitaire, F-97490 Sainte-Clotilde, Ile de La Réunion, France b CNRS, Chimie et Biologie des Substances Naturelles, F-29000 Quimper, France c UMR 95 Qualisud, CIRAD, TA B-95/16 73 rue Jean-François Breton, F-34398 Montpellier cedex 5, France article info Article history: Received 12 November 2012 Received in revised form 25 January 2013 Accepted 29 January 2013 Keywords: Bacteria Salt Microbial ecology Food traceability Geographical origin PCReDGGE abstract The determination of geographical origin is part of the demand of the traceability system of food products. A hypothesis of tracing the source of a product is to analyse in a global way the bacterial communities of the food samples after their production. For this purpose, molecular techniques employing 16S rDNA profiles generated by PCReDGGE were used to detect the variation in bacterial community structures of salts from four French regions. When the 16S rDNA profiles were analysed by multivariate analysis, distinct microbial communities were detected. The band profiles of the salt bacteria from different producing areas were different and were specific for each location and could be used as a bar code to certify the origin of salts. These band profiles can be used as specific markers for a specific location. This method is proposed as a new traceability tool which provides salts with a unique bar code that permits to trace back salts from store shelves to their original location. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Salt (NaCl) has always been consumed by humans and is essential for the health of our cells (water transfer, muscular con- traction, pH in stomach) (Kurlansky, 2002). Naturally present in fruits and vegetables which represents around 20% of daily con- tributions, added to precooked meals (around 50% of contribution) or directly added to home-made meals (around 30%), salt is con- sumed more than is advised (between 5 and 10 times more than the recommended 2 g per day) (Brown, Tzoulaki, Candeias, & Elliott, 2009; He & MacGregor, 2003). It is known that salt overconsumption can contribute to the deterioration of health by increasing blood pressure, obesity, car- diovascular diseases. (Alderman, 2002; He & MacGregor, 2010). This is the reason why, in many parts of the world, workgroups associating scientists, administrations, agencies, economic actors, and associations of consumers were set up to decrease by 20% the population consumption of salt. In front of this situation, salt producers, in particular the smallest ones had to readjust their products to keep a place on the market. Thus, for the last years, measures have been taken to diversify commercial offers of producers with standing salt prod- ucts and products with a guarantee of know-how (i.e. speciality marine salt products) (Arfini, 1999). Common salt, i.e. table salt, commonly employed in cooking, is cheaper than speciality marine salt obtained by evaporation of seawater in solar salterns. For a decade some European producers intended to access Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) or Tra- ditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) status in order to protect and value coarse salt, ground (fine) salt and salt flower, based on the quality policy for the products of European Union (EU) agriculture. The PGI associates a product with a region, to confirm its authentic origin whereas TSG highlights the traditional character, either in the composition or means of production. The first success in this field was obtained by marine salt producers of Guérande, France that received a PGI label on March 20, 2012 (Anonymous, 2012). In Europe, consumers are, for example, attracted by high price salt products that could be used in gourmet cooking. Moreover, empirical observation highlighted a concept of revenue linked with territorial qualities, that is to say, combining intrinsic quality of the * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ262 262 483 362; fax: þ262 262 483 348. E-mail address: laurent.dufosse@univ-reunion.fr (L. Dufossé). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Food Control journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodcont 0956-7135/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.01.045 Food Control 32 (2013) 644e649