The Laboratory of the Government Chemist (LGC) delivered training on DNA testing last month to UK food forensic scientists (public analysts) at its facilities at Teddington in south west London. LGC was contracted to share its expertise as part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' food authenticity programme.
Malcolm Burns, LGC science leader, DNA food analysis, said the latest techniques involved "next generation sequencing", where several substances, rather than just one ingredient, could be identified within a product simultaneously.
"Basic testing is useful where you are looking for one type of ingredient," said Burns. "What often happens is you have more than one ingredient or species for example cod, haddock and plaice in a product. That can be difficult for DNA sequencing to distinguish. Next generation sequencing can look at several species and give a quantified estimate of a target as well as other ingredients."
As an emerging technology, next generation testing costs roughly three times the amount of standard DNA sequence testing, but as equipment for it becomes more widely available, costs will fall, said Burns.
Demand was rising for the new technology and the LGC was in the process of installing next generation equipment in its Berlin laboratories, he said.
The most crucial aspect of DNA testing was its ability to identify allergen contamination in products, as it could save lives, said Burns. But the technology also had applications for testing for genetically modified substances; low-grade ingredients passed off as high grade with greater premiums; and the country of origin of meal components.