Determination of the Geographic Origin of Imported Pumpkins Using Inorganic Element Composition of Seeds

Abstract

A study on discriminating imported pumpkins by the composition of their inorganic elements was conducted to develop a scientific technique for identifying their geographic origin for import clearance. Seeds of pumpkins produced in Mexico, New Zealand and Tonga were used. A linear discrimination model was created for identifying pumpkins from Mexico, which are free of customs duty, and pumpkins from other countries, which are subject to customs duty. The effectiveness of this model was evaluated by cross validation. It had a high hit ratio of 95% (39/41) of all samples. This result suggests that discriminating by inorganic element composition may be useful in identifying the geographic origin of pumpkins for import clearance.