NZ: Fighting food fraud with forensics
All plants and animals absorb the natural chemicals of their environment, and similar technology can provide irrefutable forensic evidence of where an apple was grown. This evidence can be used to help combat misrepresentation of products in the market place, such as when inferior fruit is mislabelled as a premium brand.
A company called Oritain, based in Dunedin, New Zealand, is in the business of “food fingerprinting” and helping to protect the brands of wine, honey, and tree fruit producers, among others.
Oritan’s chief executive officer Grant Cochran said food fraud seems to be on the increase. “We became involved because we saw all the effort the farmers go to, to produce a really good product, and want to help them protect that brand,” he said.
In the case of tree fruits, the company takes samples of water, soil, and fruit from the client’s orchard and analyses the trace elements and stable isotopes. Isotopes are forms of an element that differ in the number of neutrons they contain.
The test results, which form a fingerprint unique to that specific location, are kept in its database. Oritain can later test fruit in the marketplace to see if it matches the fingerprint in the database.
Please click here to view the full article at goodfruit.com.
