DNA Accounting: Tallying Genomes to Detect Adulterated Saffron
The EU General Food Law not only aims at ensuring food safety but also to ‘prevent fraudulent or deceptive practices; the adulteration of food; and any other practices which may mislead the consumer’. Especially the partial or complete, deliberate, and intentional substitution of valuable ingredient...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-11-01
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| Series: | Foods |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/10/11/2670 |
| _version_ | 1797510327493984256 |
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| author | Antoon Lievens Valentina Paracchini Danilo Pietretti Linda Garlant Alain Maquet Franz Ulberth |
| author_facet | Antoon Lievens Valentina Paracchini Danilo Pietretti Linda Garlant Alain Maquet Franz Ulberth |
| author_sort | Antoon Lievens |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The EU General Food Law not only aims at ensuring food safety but also to ‘prevent fraudulent or deceptive practices; the adulteration of food; and any other practices which may mislead the consumer’. Especially the partial or complete, deliberate, and intentional substitution of valuable ingredients (e.g., Saffron) for less valuable ones is of concern. Due to the variety of products on the market an approach to detect food adulteration that works well for one species may not be easily applicable to another. Here we present a broadly applicable approach for the detection of substitution of biological materials based on digital PCR. By simultaneously measuring and forecasting the number of genome copies in a sample, fraud is detectable as a discrepancy between these two values. Apart from the choice of target gene, the procedure is identical across all species. It is scalable, rapid, and has a high dynamic range. We provide proof of concept by presenting the analysis of 141 samples of Saffron (<i>Crocus sativus</i>) from across the European market by DNA accounting and the verification of these results by NGS analysis. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T05:30:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ca03e1f7ef9f494fad14d9b0eeca1d91 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2304-8158 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T05:30:56Z |
| publishDate | 2021-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Foods |
| spelling | doaj.art-ca03e1f7ef9f494fad14d9b0eeca1d912023-11-22T23:20:16ZengMDPI AGFoods2304-81582021-11-011011267010.3390/foods10112670DNA Accounting: Tallying Genomes to Detect Adulterated SaffronAntoon Lievens0Valentina Paracchini1Danilo Pietretti2Linda Garlant3Alain Maquet4Franz Ulberth5European Commission, Joint Research Centre, B-2440 Geel, BelgiumEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre, I-21027 Ispra, ItalyEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre, B-2440 Geel, BelgiumEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre, B-2440 Geel, BelgiumEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre, B-2440 Geel, BelgiumEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre, B-2440 Geel, BelgiumThe EU General Food Law not only aims at ensuring food safety but also to ‘prevent fraudulent or deceptive practices; the adulteration of food; and any other practices which may mislead the consumer’. Especially the partial or complete, deliberate, and intentional substitution of valuable ingredients (e.g., Saffron) for less valuable ones is of concern. Due to the variety of products on the market an approach to detect food adulteration that works well for one species may not be easily applicable to another. Here we present a broadly applicable approach for the detection of substitution of biological materials based on digital PCR. By simultaneously measuring and forecasting the number of genome copies in a sample, fraud is detectable as a discrepancy between these two values. Apart from the choice of target gene, the procedure is identical across all species. It is scalable, rapid, and has a high dynamic range. We provide proof of concept by presenting the analysis of 141 samples of Saffron (<i>Crocus sativus</i>) from across the European market by DNA accounting and the verification of these results by NGS analysis.https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/10/11/2670food fraudsaffrondigital PCRnext generation sequencing |
| spellingShingle | Antoon Lievens Valentina Paracchini Danilo Pietretti Linda Garlant Alain Maquet Franz Ulberth DNA Accounting: Tallying Genomes to Detect Adulterated Saffron Foods food fraud saffron digital PCR next generation sequencing |
| title | DNA Accounting: Tallying Genomes to Detect Adulterated Saffron |
| title_full | DNA Accounting: Tallying Genomes to Detect Adulterated Saffron |
| title_fullStr | DNA Accounting: Tallying Genomes to Detect Adulterated Saffron |
| title_full_unstemmed | DNA Accounting: Tallying Genomes to Detect Adulterated Saffron |
| title_short | DNA Accounting: Tallying Genomes to Detect Adulterated Saffron |
| title_sort | dna accounting tallying genomes to detect adulterated saffron |
| topic | food fraud saffron digital PCR next generation sequencing |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/10/11/2670 |
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