Eurofins launches comprehensive fish testing services
Eurofins, the world leader in food and feed testing, announced that it has launched a full service package offering the most comprehensive range of analytical testing for the fish industry including DNA-based fish speciation and all parameters to ensure the overall quality and safety of fish and aquacultural products.
Fish has been making the headlines in recent media reports of fraudulent mislabelling of fish and fish products, and the publication of the results of an investigation by Oceana, the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation, on the 21st of February 2013 revealing widespread seafood fraud in the US, and accounts of similar incidents inGermany.
In light of these media reports, Eurofins Wolverhampton offers a rapid & reliable testing of fish species by PCR-RFLP allowing high-quality repeatable results and through our German competence centre further fish and aquaculture products testing services to respond to the growing demand across the food chain for authenticity and traceability of fish and seafood products.
The Oceana report demonstrated that One third of more than 1,200 seafood samples collected in the US were mislabelledaccording to US Food and Drug Administration guidelines. DNA analysis allows both suppliers and consumers to have more confidence in product authenticity and justify market prices, especially of luxury products such as caviar.
Eurofins is one of the largest commercial service providers for DNA sequencing and hence can offer fish species determination at very fast, industry-leading turnaround times. The sequences are compared with the most extensive and up-to-date sequence database in the world, the NCBI nucleotide database, allowing the broadest and most comprehensive species determination.
EU regulations prohibit the mixture of different fish species in one consumer product sold. However, the high prices of certain fish species have often resulted in cheaper species being mixed in, somewhere along the supply chain. Mislabelled fish and seafood may in some cases also present health risks as they are sometimes species-specific. Food-borne illnesses and allergic reactions are some of the possible health risks especially for sensitive groups.
Additional to the DNA analysis, testing can be done on the same sample for the broadest range of residues and contaminants including heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic, and veterinary drugs, mainly chloramphenicol, nitrofuran-metabolites and triphenylmethane dyes.
To discuss your testing requirements please contact sales team on 0845 604 6740 or make an enquiry.