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BACKGROUND Apples have a leading role in the Italian fruit sector, and high‐quality apples, including the Golden Delicious variety, are cultivated mainly in the Northern mountain districts. In the present study, Golden Delicious apples from PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) and PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) cultivation districts were characterized according to their Sr isotope composition and compared with apples from other Northern Italian districts. RESULTS: Apples collected in two consecutive years (2017 and 2018) confirmed the low annual variability of the 87Sr/86Sr ratio. The isotope ratio of apples was highly correlated with that of the soil extracts of the respective orchards. Statistical differences were highlighted between cultivation districts. However, because similar geological features characterized some areas, their ratios overlapped and a complete separation of the districts was not possible. CONCLUSION: The 87Sr/86Sr ratio is an excellent marker for studies of food traceability because it retains the information about the place of origin. However, its strength is limited when comparing products from cultivation areas sharing similar geological features. In the perspective of geographical traceability, a multichemical characterization can overcome the limits of single‐parameter approach. © 2020 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work was designed to compare the vitamin C (ascorbic acid, AsA) content of pulp, peel, and juice of 64 apple cultivars. These cultivars were carefully identified as ‘true to type’ by molecular genetic tools, grown in the same site under identical conditions and processed by a standardized protocol. Twenty-one of them, accounting for more than 95% of the apple production of South Tyrol, were chosen to represent the current market, 16 were old or local cultivars formerly grown in the area, and 27 were new cultivars, including 15 with scab resistance and 12 with red flesh fruit. For the determination of the AsA content, a new High-Performance Liquid Chromatography with Diode-Array Detection method was developed and validated. While old cultivars stood out for their high AsA content in pulp and peel, the red-fleshed cultivars are the ones maintaining most of their AsA content during processing. Our data thus suggest a potential for old and red-fleshed cultivars for healthy juices or further processed food components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]