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Imprint
Development and validation of innovative methods for tracing and authentification of animal proteins in food and feed, Subproject 1 (Animal-ID)
Project
Project code: 2816503514, BfR-LMS-08-1337-201
Contract period: 01.04.2016
- 01.04.2019
Budget: 312,928 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
The projects aims to develop improved analytical protein based tools for the reliable detection of animal material in feed and food. The methods shall be of use for the food and feed producing industry as well as official control bodies. In the field of food analysis this shall be achieved by rapid and easy-to-use tests which can be applied by e.g. customs authorities as well as quality control laboratories at production plants. Analytical gaps in feed analyses will be closed by innovative mass spectrometric approaches in combination with immunological and molecular biology based methods. Apart from increasing consumers distrust in the quality of food, illegal meat components may also pose a real health risk, if potentially prion-contaminated feed enters the food chain. The economic damage by fraudulently declared commodities might be considerabconsiderablely. Furthermore, carryover during storage or transport may lead to non-declared traces of animal derived proteins in the food and feed chain. The analytical traceability and authentification verification of the zoological origin of meat is of particular meaning if macroscopic differentiation is no longer possible (e.g. granulate, deep frozen, reformed meat, processed animal proteins (PAP), hydrolysed protein or blood products like spray dried plasma and other pre-products). Moreover, in the production of animal meals extreme processing conditions are proscribed. Since the methods available so far do not cover all analytical requirements, new methods are urgently needed to enable complete controls at all critical hazard points – from farm to fork – to support law enforcement and consumer protection.
Is the information on the label correct? Which animal species was processed for this feed? Answering such questions about adulteration of feed and food of animal origin was the core of the collaborative project "Animal-ID". In order to provide supervisory authorities and com-panies with new methods, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), the Nat-ural and Medical Sciences Institute (NMI) at the University of Tübingen and the Berlin-based institute for product quality (ifp) worked together to develop rapid tests as well as immu-noaffinity-based mass spectrometry methods for the detection of peptides and proteins in products of animal origin. With the developed methods traces of animal components, from e.g. prohibited bovine protein in complex feeds, were successfully detected in complex feed matrices. In total, species origin tests for 9 species and tests to differentiate tissue from cattle for meat, blood and plasma were developed.
Section overview
Subjects
- Food Processing
