The increasing complexity of the food supply chain is challenging the industry to find ways to improve the traceability of ingredients used for food production. As DNA is one of the most universal molecules which can be used for species identification, DNA analysis is now being used extensively for food traceability.
The recent introduction of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) into the food sector opened the door to an untargeted approach to testing, one which is essential for addressing authenticity issues. With NGS, a single DNA analysis can assess the whole composition of a food product, whether the content is meat, fish, seafood, plants, microbes, or something else.
In this paper, produced for The Consumer Goods Forum CGF and its End-to-End Value Chain Learning Series, we look at some of the pioneering work being done to introduce NGS for routine use in the food sector.
