The procedure exposes fake organic eggs
A new method provides insight into the composition of an egg. Label fraud should become impossible, even for other foods like beef. The procedure could also find broader application with the legalization of cannabis.
A novel testing procedure can accurately determine if an egg sold as organic actually comes from organic farming with a 99.9 percent accuracy rate. The procedure, which uses nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR spectroscopy), was developed by Andreas Juadjur, head of chemical analysis at the German Institute of Food Technology (DIL) in Quakenbrück. The research project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture at a program to promote organic farming.
With this procedure, conclusions about the profile of individual ingredients in an egg can be drawn quickly, explained Juadjur: "We take a kind of fingerprint of the egg and compare this fingerprint in the form of the ingredient profile with our database." Previously, the Quakenbrück scientists had examined over 4,500 eggs over a period of two and a half years to create a database.
AI helps with egg analysis
The goal was to develop a model to draw conclusions about the origin of eggs whose origin is unknown. The accuracy of the procedure depends on the validity of the samples stored, said Juadjur. The challenge was that there are usually only three different chicken breeds in conventional hen farming. In organic farming, there are many more breeds. The breed of the hen also influences the ingredient profile of the egg.
The project showed that it is possible to establish such models using artificial intelligence with a sufficiently large dataset to create future analyses of the origin of animal food in the future. "The scientific part is done. If one wants to use it as a verification tool, one would have to check and also extend the data every year," said Juadjur.
"There are cases where people cheat"
Even with beef, the DIL scientists have shown that the difference between dry-aged and wet-aged meat can be proven using NMR spectroscopy, according to Juadjur. It is possible that the procedure can be used for any food of animal origin.
The goal of the project was to find a method that can prove the organic farming method. This gives farmers the opportunity to confirm the correctness of the labeling, so that consumers can have trust in the products, said Juadjur: "There are cases where people cheat, and it's important to be able to check that again on the analytical side."
Expose food scandals faster
The procedure can also help to expose food scandals faster. Juadjur referred to the melamine scandal in China, where the plastic basic product melamine was mixed with milk powder to simulate a higher protein content. 300,000 infants became ill, and 6 died.
The NMR-based procedure would not have detected the melamine in this case, but it would have noticed that something is not right. "With one measurement, we see in 20 minutes if there are any abnormalities in the spectrum of the ingredients," he said.
The team around Juadjur already has another idea for how the method based on NMR spectroscopy could be used: It could also be used to analyze the ingredients of hemp. After the legalization of cannabis, this could be a way to gather statistics about the types of hemp being grown, such as the proportion of the intoxicating component THC. "This could be fed back to politics so that they can evaluate the impact of the legislation based on these data," said Juadjur.
This method, developed by the German Institute of Food Technology, can also be used to verify the organic origin of other animal products, ensuring farmers can accurately label their goods and consumers can trust their purchases. (Education about organic farming and consumer trust)
Given the potential for food fraud, especially in the context of cannabis legalization, analyses using NMR spectroscopy could provide valuable insights into the composition and quality of hemp products, aiding policy-makers in evaluating the impact of legislation. (Application of NMR spectroscopy in the legalization of cannabis)
