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Next generation sequencing offers a powerful tool in the fight against fish fraud

25 June 2021

Mario Gadanho explains how next generation sequencing has the power to help the food processing industry tackle the global problem of fish fraud. 

Seafood fraud is a well-documented and costly problem that damages brands, compromises safety, and dents consumer confidence. Traditionally, however, manufacturers and retailers have lacked the tools they need to properly address this issue. However, following its move from academia to commercial use, next generation sequencing (NGS) – which can screen for thousands of species in just one test – looks set to hold the key to finally eliminating seafood fraud. 

Quite aside from deception, fish fraud has huge implications for the health of the environment, consumers, and businesses. For example, studies have found samples often contain endangered species, and mislabelling can introduce a dangerous, even fatal, allergen risk. 

Drivers and solutions
Despite the size of the problem, it has been extremely difficult to overcome. Complex, global supply chains contain multiple points of vulnerability and the drivers are complicated. The relative high value of some species, for example, as well as pressure on suppliers to fulfil high-volume orders can both result in mislabelling.

Historically, retailers and manufacturers have lacked the necessary analytical tools to identify fraud in this space. Traditional, targeted methods of food authenticity testing are simply not feasible or provide only limited information.

Unlike in meat, where laboratories have a limited number of species to test for, in fish and seafood, they would need to carry out separate tests for dozens, if not hundreds, of species to ensure integrity.

Next generation sequencing (NGS), however, is different. Rather than returning a simple negative/positive result, it is able to reliably detect and report multi-species DNA, even in complex samples, by comparing the DNA in samples to an extensive database. 

It allows food processing laboratories to screen for thousands of species in one test – and get results within a 24-hour window.

Ready-to-deploy systems offer flexible workflows that allow for sample processing of up to 20 g, or automated DNA extraction for the higher throughput of multiple samples. 

Results are robust and reliable. Identification targets nuclear and/or mitochondrial DNA for increased sensitivity and specificity – using the SGS All Species ID FISH DNA Analyser Kit as part of the Thermo Scientific NGS Food Authenticity workflow, for example, it is possible to detect more than 10,000 fish species at a DNA level of 0.5-1%.

Mario Gadanho is R&D senior scientist at Thermo Fisher Scientific.


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