Parameters for discrimination between organic and conventional production: A case study for chicory plants (Cichorium intybus L.).

Organic crop production has become a highly attractive way of production over the world and thus the need for robust analytical techniques for their authentication. The main aim of this study is to identify appropriate biomarkers to discriminate between organic and conventionally grown chicory. Chicory is an appreciated leafy vegetable among producers and consumers, especially due to its undemanding cultivation and content of bioactive substances. Six different fertility management practices (control, two organic, two mineral, and a combination of organic and mineral fertilizers) were used to produce five chicory cultivars in a glasshouse pot experiment. Analysis of bioactive compounds, nitrogen assimilation, multi-elemental profiling and stable isotope ratio determination of carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S) were performed to differentiate between organic and conventional production. In this study, nitrogen isotopes are found to be an excellent way of identifying organically produced chicory of a different variety with the highest δ

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Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.