Abstract
Fish species substitution and fraud has become a worldwide economic issue in the seafood industry. In this study, an ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy-based method was developed for the identification of fish samples. Sixty fish samples from twelve commonly consumed fish species in China were analyzed as models to testify the protocol. The obtained results show that UV-Vis spectroscopy combined with chemometric analysis, such as principal component analysis (PCA), can accurately distinguish two fish species by boiling fish tissue sample in trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) solution for 2 min and analyzing the resultant samples using a UV-Vis spectrometer. The developed strategy was successfully applied to the classification and identification of fish samples on the market. It is a promising strategy that can be applied to the classification and authenticity testing of closely related fish species in order to detect and recognize fish substitution.
Highlights
Fighting food fraud is challenging because of the constant evolution of fraudulent practices and its implications on both consumers and the globalized trade [1,2,3]
We previously evaluated that the trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) acid method is optimal and capable of pretreating fish muscle tissue for seafood analysis, as a reproducible and efficient method of producing good spectral resolution when analyzing the resultant samples using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (MS) [24]
The results show that significant differences exist between the UV-Vis spectra of any two fish species of fish samples analyzed in the present study
Summary
Fighting food fraud is challenging because of the constant evolution of fraudulent practices and its implications on both consumers and the globalized trade [1,2,3]. It is important to monitor the entire food chain in order to detect and prevent fraudulent actions, such as species substitutions, which is considered the most common fraud in the seafood industry [4]. Rapid and easy methods for food authenticity tests are always necessary with the developments in globalization of the food supply chain. Spectroscopic techniques, including vibrational (near-infrared (NIR), mid-infrared (MIR), Raman), fluorescence or absorption ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopies, together with hyperspectral imaging (HSI) spectroscopy, have been used to develop tools for food quality analysis and authenticity testing [5]. Minced beef adulteration with turkey meat was detected using UV-Vis, NIR and MIR spectroscopy [10]. UV-Vis spectroscopy and attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy coupled with highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods were used to detect food fraud in commercial pomegranate molasses syrups [11]. Raman chemical imaging method has been developed to authenticate skim milk powder where identification and distribution of the multiple adulterant particles in the milk powder could be visualized using Raman chemical images [16]
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