Genetic help for the separation of fish
The AZTI Foundation has developed a genetic technique to verify that canned tuna is really a tuna. Thanks to this method, tuna family fish will easily separate from each other, both those who belong to this family and those who are not. At present, the food industry has serious problems identifying the components of the products marketed, and it is estimated that 25,000 marine and meat products are sold in the world without knowing the species of origin.
Consequently, a fraud occurs in the labels. Normally, to know the type of fish its proteins are analysed, but this method only gives good results in fresh fish, since in the process of making preserves the proteins are transformed.
The technique developed by AZTI will also serve for preserved fish. For now it has been prepared for tunnels and is now working with cod. AZTI researcher Miguel Angel Pardo and Begoña Perez-Villarreal have received the Félix Mokoroa award for this research.
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