The leading methods used for the forensic assessment of geographic food origin use stable isotope analyses 11, 12, 13, 14.
#EXTREME SAMPLE CONVERTER 3.5.3 VERIFICATION#
Analytical tools for the independent verification of the geographical origin of food are therefore in high demand 10. This erodes consumer trust 3, and increases the potential for reduced quality and health risk 1, 9. Improper labeling concerning the country of origin is the most common form of food fraud 7, 8, which is motivated by cost reduction and maximization of profits 1. Although most cases are not identified, it is estimated that 10% to 30% of all commercially sold food is fraudulent 4, 5. Our results show that modifying leaf-based model parameters specifically for fruit and with product-independent, but growth time specific environmental input data, plant physiological isotope models offer a new and dynamic method that can accurately predict the geographic origin of a plant product and can advance the field of stable isotope analysis to counter food fraud.įood fraud, the intentional and misleading adulteration of food for economic gain 1, 2, 3, imposes an estimated annual burden of up to $40 billion 4, 5, 6. In our study we test model predictions against a unique 11-year European strawberry δ 18O reference dataset to evaluate how choices of input variable sources and model parameterization impact the prediction skill of the model. However, the validation of these models and thus the best choice of model parameters and input variables have limited the application of the models for the origin identification of food. These models have the potential to simplify, speed up, and improve conventional stable isotope applications and produce temporally resolved, accurate, and precise region-of-origin assignments for agricultural food products. Plant physiological stable oxygen isotope models simulate how precipitation δ 18O values and climatic variables shape the δ 18O values of water and organic compounds in plants. Stable isotope methods, using oxygen isotopes (δ 18O) in particular, are the leading forensic tools for identifying these crimes. Fraudulent food products, especially regarding false claims of geographic origin, impose economic damages of $30–$40 billion per year.
0 kommentar(er)
