Fish Speciation Testing

The fish labelling regulations of 2003 (amended in 2010) stipulate that fishery products must identify what species of fish is contained within the product, ensuring that the commercial designation of fish species identified correctly describes the species of fish present.

This regulation has brought about a requirement for reliable species testing of such products to ensure regulatory compliance and guard against the fraudulent or accidental inclusion of mislabelled species in fishery products

Rapid & reliable identification of fish species by PCR-RFLP

Eurofins has introduced a highly specific and sensitive rapid DNA method with results in less than 24 hours from sample receipt. Eurofins Wolverhampton can offer this rapid testing allowing high-quality repeatable results.

This method exploits minor differences in DNA sequence between different fish species.  A small piece of fish DNA is copied many times using PCR. These are then compared with a large authenticated database of fish species using matcher software to ensure accurate species identification.

In comparison, the standard methods for the identification of fish species in foods are based on either morphology, which is applicable for whole fish only and requires considerable expertise or isoelectric focusing (IEF) which distinguishes between fish on the basis of protein polymorphisms.  IEF takes longer to perform, is limited to identification of raw and lightly processed samples and can be difficult to interpret compared with DNA methods.

The Eurofins rapid test advantages are:

• Rapid species identification in as little as 7 hours
• Highly specific and sensitive test
• Reliable identification of many fish species, including all major commercial species