Food Authenticity and Profiling

Next generation food screening and identification requires an expanded toolset to address the increase in food fraud cases and ensure food authenticity.

Contact us  Food analysis brochure  

Routine food testing and forensic investigations benefit from a variety of food profiling techniques. Genomic approaches utilize nuclear or mitochondrial DNA to generate genetic profiles. Proteomics characterizes food and food products through the analysis of proteins and peptides. Metabolomics provides deep insights into the overall composition of food products, while isotopolomics can provide the analysis of isotopic ratios and rare earth elements.

By analyzing food products with these various food profiling techniques, databases can be generated to easily identify quality parameters like geographic origin, production type, variety and many more.

Because food fraud is a problem at every stage of the food and beverage supply chain and consumers are increasingly concerned about food safety, quality, and sourcing; product labels should be accurate. To protect the reputations of your company and clients and encourage customer loyalty, food fingerprinting and isotope analysis can be used to determine the authenticity of ingredients.

Rapidly obtain valuable information about the biochemical composition of food through mass spectrometry-based proteomics and metabolomics approaches. Total confirmational confidence in authenticity and adulteration testing with specificity and sensitivity is enabled through Orbitrap high resolution accurate mass (HRAM) LCMS and GCMS workflows.

Food testing laboratories traditionally perform speciation testing using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). For public health and food safety authenticity investigations, these methods require intense customization to achieve the required sensitivity and accuracy and the molecular information is incomplete, making data mining post-analysis impossible.

Using a bottom up LCMS proteomic strategy, meat speciation testing can achieve the sensitivity and selectivity required to detect meat adulteration with accuracy.

• Meat authentication and adulteration testing by HPLC combined with high-resolution, accurate-mass (HRAM) mass spectrometry

Related products

• HRAM Orbitrap Exploris LCMS
• High Performance Liquid Chromatography
• Proteome Discoverer Software
• BioBasic 8 HPLC Columns

Flavor profiling and authentication can be a challenging analysis as the sample matrices encountered are chemically complex, the compounds are present over a wide dynamic range, and profiling requires sensitive and stable systems. An integrated metabolomics approach can accelerate characterization and identification of volatile and non-volatile food samples for profiling and food investigations.

• Intelligent omics workflow using an Orbitrap Exploris GC 240 mass spectrometer for food characterization
• Untargeted analysis with GC-Orbitrap: a powerful tool for the authentication of spices and herbs

Next generation sequencing technologies, including high-throughput digital PCR, are enabling rapid identification of pathogenic bacteria and fungi to ensure food sources are safe before they reach shelves and tables.

Find GMO real-time PCR testing solutions for your complete workflow with Applied Biosystems TaqMan GMO Detection and Quantification Kits, supplied in partnership with Imegen™.

When verifying the origin and traceability of raw materials and for quality control of handling and cleaning processes in production lines, it is essential to accurately identify meat and fish species in food and ingredient samples. Learn more about the real-time PCR-based species detection and quantification solutions we have developed in collaboration with Imegen*.

Learn more ›

Combat food fraud with a complete next generation sequencing (NGS) workflow for meat, fish and plant species screening and identification (ID). Initiate in-house multi-species ID testing of even the most complex food samples for accurate detection and differentiation of expected or unexpected species.

• Simple: ready-to-use kits include all necessary reagents for DNA labeling and amplification, and provide results with any sample type, including complex and processed samples
• Rapid: allows preparation of NGS library from extracted DNA within 4 hours
• Flexible: utilizes a unique labelling system in which the DNA of each food sample is individually identified with an exclusive barcoded DNA sequence, enabling analysis of multiple samples together for meat, fish and plant species
• Supported: our experienced technical team is ready to assist you

Learn more ›