Crop Authenticity in Organic Horticultural Production: Recent Studies and Applications

In recent years, demand for organic products has grown, as consumers consider them to be safer and healthier than conventional ones. Research has been conducted over the years to investigate old and new reliable systems for testing the authenticity of products obtained using organic cultivation methods. This Special Issue contains original research articles, communications, and review articles on different agronomic practices and techniques (such as fertilization and pest management) that address crop authenticity in organic agriculture. Research that focuses on the application of approaches to tracking chemical components derived from the primary and/or secondary metabolism of organic and conventional products are included. The SI also includes papers that discuss the isotopic distribution of elements and that highlight the diversity induced by conventional and organic production techniques with the final aim of establishing new tools for organic horticultural crop characterization and authenticity. The use of innovative spectroscopic techniques and metabolomics and the application of sustainable agronomic practices in organic cropping systems are reported. Finally, the SI also reports data analysis through chemometrics tools that enable the validation of multivariate implemented approaches for organic crop authenticity.