Developing a forensic test for geographic origin of seafood products

全球海产品贸易每年价值超过2500亿美元，为消费者提供高质量的食品，也是全球收入和就业的宝贵来源。野生鱼类的可持续捕捞取决于有效的管理和监管，但监管也可能导致贴错标签和欺诈。海产品是全球贸易量最大的商品之一，建立从地理来源到销售点的监管链（可追溯性）是零售商和客户的明确愿望。物种识别基因检测的发展最初在整个海产品零售网络中造成了广泛的物种替代和错误标签，特别是在小型零售商中。陆地食品的地理来源或来源可以使用化学工具进行追踪，但这种同位素技术尚未扩展到海产品。该项目与英国最大的海产品供应商Young's合作，将确定基于同位素的法医测试的可行性，以测试零售网络内所有地点的地理来源。方法：与行业合作伙伴Young's合作，您将首先确定交易的海鲜品种和具有空间错误标签高风险的渔场。然后，您将汇集所有可用的空间明确的生物地球化学信息，包括测量和建模数据，以确定与关注物种相关的渔区之间同位素歧视的可能性。然后，您将建立来自已知来源的鱼类组织样本的数据集，以表征与已确定的渔区相关的化学指纹，开发统计算法，根据地理来源对未知样本进行分类，并评估使用化学法医方法的准确性和精度。该博士学位的主要产品将是一套工业就绪的化学法医方法，用于测试地理来源，为特定的渔业量身定制。最后，您将应用开发的工具来量化零售网络不同部门的空间替代和错误标签的可能程度。

The global trade in seafood is worth more than 250 billion dollars annually, providing high quality food to consumers and a valuable source of income and employment across the globe. Sustainable harvesting of wild fish depends on effective management and regulation, but regulation also opens potential for mislabeling and fraud. Seafood is among the most globally traded commodity, and establishing the chain of custody from geographic origin to point of sale (traceability) is a clear desire for retailers and customers. Development of genetic testing for species identity initially established widespread species substitution and mislabeling across the seafood retail network, particularly in small-scale retailers. The geographic origin or provenance of terrestrial food products can be tracked using chemical tools, but to such isotopic techniques have not been extended to seafood. This project, in association with Young's, the UK's largest supplier of seafood products, will establish the feasibility of isotope-based forensic tests to test claims of geographic origin at all points within the retail network.Methodology: Working with the industrial partner, Young's, you will initially identify traded seafood species and fisheries with high risk of spatial mislabeling. You will then bring together all available spatially explicit biogeochemical information including measured and modeled data, to determine the potential for isotopic discrimination between fishery areas associated with the species of concern. You will then build datasets of tissue samples from fish of known origin to characterize chemical fingerprints associated with the identified fishery areas, develop statistical algorithms to classify unknown samples according to geographic origin, and assess the accuracy and precision available using chemical forensic approaches. The main product of this PhD will be a suite of industry-ready, chemical forensic methods to test for geographic provenance, tailored to specific fisheries of interest. Finally you will apply the tools developed to quantify the possible extent of spatial substitution and mislabeling in different sectors of the retail network.