A food-testing method to ensure food authenticity has achieved 100% accuracy in a research project led by the Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS) at Queen’s University Belfast.
The university has labelled the method as “potentially game-changing” and said that it has the potential to be applied across the global food supply chain.
The study findings, published today (Thursday, June 8) in the Nature Communications journal, found that fusing the data from two different food testing methods combined with the use of artificial intelligence can result in more accurate results than any single method alone.
The study used salmon as a case study, sourcing over 500 samples from both farmed and wild productions, from Alaska, Norway, Iceland and Scotland.
Researchers were keen to overcome the struggles in fish authenticity testing as fish products can be vulnerable to food fraud.
Lead author of the study, PhD student Yunhe Hong, said the research has greatly improved the ability to correctly identify where fish are from and has sparked hope that it will be able to be applied to other produce.
“This innovative approach has the potential to be applied to many other food-authenticity applications, a very exciting thought,” she said.
“During this project, we also uncovered many other important aspects of food security which we hope to further explore.”
Co-author, Prof. Chris Elliot, added: “The problem with much of the food we eat is that if travels across complex, multinational food chains and the opportunities for fraud are substantial.
“In the fight against global food fraud, science will play an increasingly important role to deter criminals and detect fraud.
“This study is the latest innovation from our team at IGFS and we are proud to help protect businesses and consumers from potential food safety and fraud risks.”
Methods and findings
The IGFS measured the lipid fingerprint of the fish used in the research, as well as the elemental fingerprint, and fused this together into a single ‘data lake’.
After this, the team used high-powered data analytics to produce a diagnostic tool to determine the geographical origins of the fish and the method of production (farmed or wild).
Towards the end of the project, further samples of salmon from UK supermarkets were tested using the new method to compare results.
Researchers again found there was 100% correlation between information provided by the retailers and what they had found in the lab when testing.
The study took three years in total and researchers believe the results will be “very reassuring to the UK consumer”.
The authors of the study also said the findings have significant potential for use in other foods to better ensure authenticity and combat fraud.