Quick and reliable identification of country of origin using Stable Isotope Reference analysis

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The project will use Stable Isotope Reference Analysis to authenticate Country of Origin food labelling. Longhand Data (LHD) have previous experience in this field having developed a Stable Isotope Reference Analysis (SIRA) database (db) for the pig sector (BPEX). The new project will compare the SIRA signature of pig and poultry samples and establish a new SIRA database in poultry. This cross-species use is innovative and novel. LHD will collect egg and poultry meat samples from producers within the UK. The SIRA laboratory work will be undertaken by a sub-contractor. LHD have the necessary structures in place to subsequently exploit the technology. There is a growing UK and world demand for authentication of country of origin labelling, particularly relevant as legislation to ban caged-egg production in the EU has been sporadically implemented - with some EU countries investing more that others in replacing battery housing with more welfare friendly designs. The technology uses analysis methods to compare SIRA signatures of retail products, for example eggs or poultry meat, with SIRA signatures of known samples. Follow-up paper traceability audits need only be applied for those samples that do not match the database. In other species it has been found that existing traceability processes do not easily, or at all, identify which farm or even local area, products originate from. SIRA therefore becomes a much more robust method of validating origin; it is also cheaper as only samples that do not match the database need be followed-up with a paper audit.