Use of genomic technologies to enhance food safety and authenticity

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Food fraud is estimated to cost UK business in the region of £11 Bn per annum. The horse meat scandal that occurred across Europe in the first quarter of 2013 highlighted major deficiencies in the food production supply chain and audit procedures. It also highlighted significant issues in analytical capabilities in European and UK food testing laboratories. DNA analysis by real time PCR (RTPCR) was quickly identified as the method of choice for species determination but was available in only a handful of UK laboratories. This resulted in a major backlog of samples as capacity was quickly saturated. Following this crisis the industry has sought more robust analytical techniques which can generate more accurate and comprehensive data sets. A business opportunity existed to introduce new technology to meet the needs of the food and feed production companies and retailers alike UoM and collaborators from PiQ laboratories developed an amplicon-seq based diagnostic which allows detection of all mammalian species in a single assay. This test overcame the major issue with standard PCR based diagnostics which requires that each potential contaminant needs to be assessed in a separate test. Despite this significant advance, there are a 2 key issues with amplicon-seq based diagnostics. Bias, introduced by PCR amplification prevents the test being used in a quantitative manner and often, the amplicons are unable to differentiate commercially valuable species from other closely related species. We seek to overcome these issues by developing metagenomics testing based on direct, non-amplified target-agnostic sequencing from food samples. This will involve development of target databases, scripting of routines to efficiently and accurately interrogate these databases and implementation of the prototype test in a cost effective manner with emphasis on relevant testing markets. The use of metagenomics for food testing is now a realistic proposition due to the dramatic reduction in per base sequencing cost, coupled with new low cost sequencers and the increase in genomic data from food fraud target species.The Forward Look for UK Bioscience is structured around three interrelated themes. The primary aim of this project is centered around theme 2. In addition, the Research in Agriculture and Food Safety strategic framework details food safety and nutrition as a focus area. By developing NGS technologies that will support efforts to assess food authenticity, traceability of specific cultivars, allergens and identification of pathogens and toxin producers in foods, we cover a key objective on improving food safety and nutrition. Alongside this we cover objectives within theme 1 of the Forward Look for UK Bioscience to build capacity in the food diagnostics and safety industry to utilise disruptive bioscience technologies. Directly linked to this we are supporting the development of an individual with a breadth of professional , enterprise and transferrable skills and building capacity in the food security sector with quantitative, integrative and data-intensive bioscience.