EU - MolSpec-ID - Development of Quantitative and Qualitative Molecular Biological Methods to Identify Plant and Animal Species in Foods

Recent investigations demonstrated that fraudulent replacement of food components as well as adverse reaction to unexpected food ingredients is quite common problems. Up to now official methods for the detection of plant and animal species in foods are exclusively based on protein analysis. The project aims to develop DNA-analytical methods for qualitative and quantitative identification of plant and animal species in foods to monitor product safety and trace ability. The project includes the comparison of nucleic acid-based methods with protein-based ones. A research aspect will be enhancing throughput by introducing multiplex-PCR, PCR-ELISA and chip technology. Four methods for several species will be validated in inter-laboratory studies. Furthermore a public database will be established containing information about methods to identify plant and animal species in foods.