Fields & Applications Genomics & DNA Analysis, Environmental

DNA Horse Play

The ongoing horsemeat scandal has damaged customer confidence in authenticity and raised food analysis awareness.

Rich Whitworth | 03/22/2013

"Public confidence has been badly shaken", according to European Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner Tonio Borg, and as evidenced by Google Trends, which tracks keyword search volume.

On Feb 13, Borg announced the Official Control Plan, which includes:

Testing for presence of horse DNA in foods marketed or labeled as containing beef by Member States.
Testing for presence of phenylbutazone residues in horse meat.

The findings from the first month of testing will be made public on April 15.

figure Googletrends horsemeat — Horse meat (blue), horse burgers (red), horse DNA (gold). 100 on y-axis indicates peak search volume.

figure Googletrends DNA test — “DNA test” (blue), phenylbutazone (red). 100 on y-axis indicates peak search volume.

On January 15, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) announced the presence of horse (and pig) DNA in beef products when it released the results of a targeted study examining authenticity of beef products. Since then, questions have been raised in European parliament and food traceability is an even hotter topic.

"Public confidence has been badly shaken", said European Health and Consumer Policy Commissioner Tonio Borg, as evidenced by Google Trends, which tracks worldwide keyword search volume. Along with searches for horsemeat, consumers were clearly concerned about health impacts with increased interest in phenylbutazone (or ‘bute’, a veterinary medicinal product whose use in food producing animals, including horses, is illegal).

Collated test results for horse

Table 1: UK Food Standards Agency meat product DNA test results, February 22.
Sample type	Number of tests	Negative*	Positive*
Beef products	2880	2845	35
Raw beef materials/ingredients	552	552
Total	3432	3397	35

* Positive indicates levels of over 1% (DNA or meat) were reported. The 1% boundary was set as a pragmatic means of distinguishing between gross contamination or adulteration, and ‘trace’ levels.
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Fields & Applications Genomics & DNA Analysis, Environmental

Rich Whitworth

Rich Whitworth completed his studies in medical biochemistry at the University of Leicester, UK, in 1998. To cut a long story short, he escaped to Tokyo to spend five years working for the largest English language publisher in Japan. "Carving out a career in the megalopolis that is Tokyo changed my outlook forever. When seeing life through such a kaleidoscopic lens, it's hard not to get truly caught up in the moment." On returning to the UK, after a few false starts with grey, corporate publishers, Rich was snapped up by Texere Publishing, where he spearheaded the editorial development of The Analytical Scientist. "I feel honored to be part of the close-knit team that forged The Analytical Scientist – we've created a very fresh and forward-thinking publication." Rich is now also Content Director of Texere Publishing, the company behind The Analytical Scientist.