Food for thought

Food authenticity

According to the International Food Authenticity Assurance Organization (FAAO), food authenticity is the process of irrefutably proving that a food or food ingredient is in its genuine, verifiable, and intended form as declared and represented. It is a form of quality control or specification confirmation. This complex food-science concept has recently become the buzz as more and more consumers are demanding transparency as to where their food comes from and what it contains. Food authenticity is an undeniably ethical issue since its main purpose is to prevent food-borne diseases and pollution and to guarantee the accuracy of information provided to consumers—especially in communities with special dietary intakes, i.e. religious beliefs or veganism.

Food authenticity is an undeniably ethical issue since its main purpose is to prevent food-borne diseases and pollution and to guarantee the accuracy of information provided to consumers

How did Food Authenticity come to the forefront of the Food Industry?

Consider food authenticity as a process of supporting the food fraud prevention strategy. In fact, food fraud can be very diverse—from economically motivated adulteration (EMA) to counterfeiting, vandalism, unapproved enhancement, and false labelling.

During the past 200 years, drastic changes have taken place in food production practices. Mass food production chaperoned growing industrialization and settlement. Agricultural production rose through industrial upscaling and accompanying technological advancements helped from global distribution to refrigeration and canning. As the complexity and anonymity of the supply chain increase, the general public begun to have more concerns around the safety and quality of the food supply chain. And the concerns got justified multiple times.

As the complexity and anonymity of the supply chain increase, the general public begun to have more concerns around the safety and quality of the food supply chain.

How did Food Authenticity attract global interest?

In 2005, it was discovered in Germany that waste from slaughterhouses, planned for pet food, had been used for human food products. In both Germany and Denmark, the selling of old meat long after they were deemed unsafe for human consumption, with false expiry dates, in the so-called ‘’alte Fleisch Skandal’’, made headlines in the media—consequently leading to the loss in trust in the food chain among consumers. Another global turning point was the ‘’2013 horse meat scandal’’ where, in various parts of Europe, food advertised as containing beef were found to actually contain undeclared or unlawfully declared horse meat—as much as 100 % in certain cases.1 A smaller portion of the products also contained other undeclared meats such as pork.2 The issue unfolded on January 15th 2013, when it was reported that horse DNA was discovered in frozen beef burgers sold in Irish pubs and British supermarkets. This scandal came like a bolt from the blue and immediately spread all over the place for many reasons—including the usual treatment of horses with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like phenylbutazone, which is toxic and unsafe for human consumption. Besides, the analysis indicated that 23 out of the 27 samples of beef burgers tested also contained pig DNA—pork being a taboo food in the Muslim and Jewish communities.3 As stated by the former Prime Minister of UK, David Cameron, this act was totally unacceptable. Ethical concerns were raised worldwide and the traceability of food emerged as a focus for political attention and regulation at both national and international governmental levels.4

The analysis indicated that 23 out of the 27 samples of beef burgers tested also contained pig DNA—pork being a taboo food in the Muslim and Jewish communities

Halal Food Testing

What does Halal meat mean?

Halal meat is meat that is derived from animals slaughtered in accordance with the Islamic dietary laws enshrined in the Quran (Islamic Holy Book) and the Hadith (The traditions of the Prophet of Islam, Mohammed).

Nowadays, it has become an important aspect for businesses to ensure their halal products comply with Islamic regulations and to simultaneously provide proper assurance on a product’s reliability. Moreover, the concept of halal products is capturing worldwide attention as it is a direct alternative benchmark for safety, hygiene, and quality assurance. Hence, the demand for halal products from other religions is increasing concurrently. For instance, for a Muslim consumer, halal products are those which have met the requirements laid down by the Shariah Law, whereas for a non-Muslim consumer, halal products simply represent hygiene and safety.5

How can you help?

Hence, if it is essential for your customers to be able to trust that their food is halal, Minerva Biolabs offers Meat ID™ Halal—a kit for the fast and reliable identification of pork and donkey contaminations in various matrices including raw, or even highly processed and cooked meat products where the DNA might be significantly degraded already. It is possible to identify pork and donkey down to a threshold level of 0.5% with a semi-quantitative result. However, please note that Meat ID™ Halal kit does not provide a Halal-Compliance Declaration regarding the animal slaughter methods which underlie the Halal guidelines and regulations

If further investigation is desired, we recommend our qPCR-based Meat ID™ Screen kit, a reliable screening system for rapid and simultaneous detection of the most common meat species, i.e. goat, sheep, pork, horse, beef, donkey, fish, chicken, turkey, and camel in meat and other foods.

Vegan Testing

What is Veganism anyway?

Did you find yourself wondering about a plant-based diet? Veganism is a way of life that excludes any product of animal origin, whether from food or daily life. The difference between vegetarians and vegans is that vegans do not use any by-products such as eggs, dairy products, honey, leather, fur, silk, wool, cosmetics or soap derived from animals either.

Why Vegan?

Vegans partake in such a journey for a variety of fair reasons—moral, environmental, or health. While some abstain from animal products because they deem factory farming as utterly cruel and inhumane, others highlight how animal agriculture is the leading culprit when it comes to climate change. Lastly, some simply view veganism as a means to a healthier lifestyle—one fundamentally lower in fat, calories, and cholesterol and higher in fiber, vitamins and minerals. How to ensure that your food has been entirely processed without meat or animal-derived products?

In response to the exponentially increasing demand of animal-free food products, it becomes necessary to certify the absence of ingredients of animal origin in raw or processed vegan food. This process is essential to maintain – more generally – consumer confidence in the supply chain and in the label claims

We offer a quick and inexpensive solution to this problem: Vegan Control™ is a simple qPCR-based system for the quick detection of animal traces in food, which can be used in combination with our ExtractNow™ Vegan Control in order to isolate DNA from potentially non-vegan food products.

Conclusion

The adulteration of foods has long history but with the technological advances of the 21st century, better tests can be implemented to detect deception and food fraud attempts!

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21375594

[2] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/16/tesco-burgers-off-shelves-horsemeat

[3] https://www.fsai.ie/uploadedFiles/News_Centre/Burger_results_2013_01.pdf

[4] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226342628_Ethical_Traceability_and_Informed_Food_Choice

[5] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814011215

03.03.2022, Aishani Rajarai