Fraud in animal origin food products: advances in emerging detection methods over the past five years

Authors: HASSOUN, ABDO - Norwegian Institute For Food Research; MAGE, INGRID - Norwegian Institute For Food Research; Schmidt, Walter; TEMIZ, HAVVA TUMAY - Bingol University; LI, LI - Ocean University Of China; KIM, HAE-YEONG - Kyung Hee University; NILSEN, HEIDE - Norwegian Institute For Food Research; BIANCOLILLO, ALESSANDRA - University Of L’Aquila; AIT-KADDOUR, ABDERRAHMANE - Clermont Universite, Universite D'Auvergne, Unite De Nutrition Humaine; SIKORSKI, MAREK - Adam Mickiewicz University; SIKORSKI, EWA - Poznan University Of Life Sciences; GRASSI, SILVIA - Ats Of The Metropolitan City Of Milan; COZZOLINO, DANIEL - University Of Queensland

Submitted to: Foods
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/2020
Publication Date: 8/6/2020
Citation: Hassoun, A., Mage, I., Schmidt, W.F., Temiz, H., Li, L., Kim, H., Nilsen, H., Biancolillo, A., Ait-Kaddour, A., Sikorski, M., Sikorski, E., Grassi, S., Cozzolino, D. 2020. Fraud in animal origin food products: advances in emerging detection methods over the past five years. Foods. 9(8), 1069. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9081069.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9081069

Interpretive Summary: In recent years, consumers have become more concerned about the quality and safety of food products. Food fraud and adulteration are very significant concerns, especially in developing countries. Food products of animal origin, including fish and seafood, meat, poultry, milk and dairy products are sources of quality protein, thus are typically more expensive and perishable. Therefore these are the most frequently adulterated foods. Food adulteration issues include microbial contamination and spoilage, chemical/physical contamination or adulteration, product authenticity/integrity, and mislabeling of composition, quality, or national origin. Development of analytical techniques that can rapidly detect fraud and verify product authenticity is of paramount importance. Traditionally, chemical, chromatographic, molecular, and protein-based techniques, have been used to identify animal species, production methods, provenance, and processing of food products. Although these conventional methods are accurate and reliable, they are destructive, time-consuming, and can be only employed on a laboratory scale. Alternative methods based on spectroscopy overcome most of the limitations associated with traditional measurements. Food safety and authenticity can be guaranteed, and significant product losses can be reduced with spectroscopic testing methods. Spectroscopic methods rapidly and nondestructively authenticate ingredients and identify localized sources of contamination before they spread through a production/processing facility at large and/or substandard products are shipped. This benefits consumers and the entire food production industry immensely since food can be guaranteed healthy and high quality with minor investment in technology and with rapid, high-throughput testing.

Technical Abstract: Fish and seafood, meat and poultry, milk and dairy foods play a significant role in human nutrition. However, fraud in this food sector occurs often, leading to negative economic impact on consumers and potential risk to the public health and the environment. Therefore, development of analytical techniques that can rapidly detect fraud and verify the authenticity of such products is of paramount importance. Traditionally, a wide variety of targeted approaches, such as chemical, chromatographic, molecular, and protein-based techniques, among others, have been frequently used to identify animal species, production methods, provenance, and processing of food products. Although these conventional methods are accurate and reliable, they are destructive, time-consuming, and can be only employed on a laboratory scale. On the contrary, alternative methods, based mainly on spectroscopy, have emerged in recent years as invaluable tools to overcome most of the limitations associated with traditional measurements. The number of scientific studies reporting on various authenticity issues investigated by vibrational spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and fluorescence spectroscopy has increased substantially over the past few years, indicating a tremendous potential of these techniques in the fight against food fraud. It is the aim of the present manuscript to review the-state-of-the-art research advances since 2015 regarding the use of analytical methods applied to detect fraud in food products of animal origin, with a particular attention to be paid to spectroscopic measurements coupled with chemometric analysis. The opportunities and challenges surrounding the use of spectroscopic techniques and possible future directions will also be also discussed.