IDENTIFICATION OF FRAUD IN TRADE IN PROCESSED FISH PRODUCTS BY DNA ANALYSIS

摘要

Institutions working for food safety have the main goal to guarantee consumers about the security of what they eat. In seafood field a key aspect of food safety is represented by the possibility to correctly identify the species of fish especially when the product has been already processed and therefore no more morphologically identifiable. In the present study we analysed 20 seafood products with the aim to properly classify their fish species composition. The analysis was carried out by sequencing a region of cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene. Results revealed ability of DNA sequencing to recognize fish species in very transformed seafood preparations, being able to reveal wrong labelling of the product.