Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Food adulteration and traceability tests using stable carbon isotope technologies

Zhanhua Mai, Bei Lai, Mingwei Sun, Junli Shao¹, Lianxian Guo

Dongguan Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine, School of Public Health, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, Guangdong 523808, Peopleâ€™s Republic of China;

For correspondence:- Lianxian Guo Email: glx525@gdmu.edu.cn Tel:+8676922896573

Accepted: 28 July 2019 Published: 29 August 2019

Citation: Mai Z, Lai B, Sun M, Shao J, Guo L. Food adulteration and traceability tests using stable carbon isotope technologies. Trop J Pharm Res 2019; 18(8):1771-1784 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v18i8.29

© 2019 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Due to the fractionation of stable carbon isotopes in plant photosynthesis, bio-decomposition processes, environmental factors, plant physiology, geographical factors, climatic conditions and agricultural practices, different foods exhibit significant differences in stable carbon isotope ratios. Therefore, stable carbon isotope ratio analysis (SCIRA) presents an effective tool for detecting food adulteration and food traceability control. In addition, stable carbon isotopes can frequently be used as markers to identify veterinary drug residues, pesticide residues and toxic substances remaining in foods by isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS). The emphasis of this review, which will help readers to modify stable carbon isotope technologies more easily and extend their application in adulteration and traceability for foods, is on the characteristics of various instruments and the data processing methods in SCIRA and IDMS technologies. The latest research is also reviewed and highlighted. This paper reviews potential applications of these technologies to improve current food detection and protect consumers’ rights.

Keywords: Food adulteration, Traceability, Stable isotopes, Stable carbon isotope ratio analysis, Isotope dilution mass spectrometry