Many consumers may think that when they see the words “100 per cent beef” on food packaging, that’s actually what they’re getting. But that’s not always the case.
A recent federally funded study has found that 20 per cent of sausages sampled from grocery stores across Canada contained meats that weren’t on the label.
The 2013 European horse meat scandal is among the most well-known examples of food fraud. Beef products in several countries were found to contain undeclared horse meat, prompting outrage from consumers.
There is a DNA test that government regulators can use to determine what species of animal is in ground meat, but not what parts of the animal are being used.
That means offal — animal organs such as hearts, livers, kidneys and stomachs — can be thrown into the mix without the consumer knowing it.
UBC food science student Yaxi Hu has developed technology that can identify foreign species in meat as well as offal that is mixed in with meat of the same species.
Hu developed a spectrometer that can identify materials using light, that tells the difference between lean muscle and individual organ meats.
“The different molecules in beef meat will interact with the light,” she said. “They will either absorb the light or reflect the light or scatter the light.”
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The resulting data show what percentage is lean muscle and what isn’t.
Hu said the technology is still in its early stages but is already 100 per cent accurate with five different organ meats.
She has high hopes for the new technology.
“If it’s small enough we think that there is a possibility for consumers to have this kind of instrument at home,” she said.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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