Q01086: The development of methods to determine the geographical origin of poultry

Study Duration: September 2003 to August 2006

Contractor: Institute of Food Research

In recent times there has been an increase in consumer demand for home-grown food products. The reasons for the increase in sales of national products vary from a decrease in consumer confidence in food from outside their country or the EU, to increased concern over food miles and animal welfare. Also recent food scares such as avian influenza have added to public sensitivity regarding the validity of poultry geographical origin labelling. Food labelling rules require geographic origin only if omission is misleading, but Defra guidelines on the Poultrymeat Marketing Regulation recommend that the origin of third country poultrymeat is declared if sold in the UK. The aim of this project was to develop a robust analytical method that could be used to determine or verify the geographical origin of chicken.

This research examined the feasibility of determining the geographical origins of poultrymeat by developing a database of light element isotopic ratios (carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen), multi-element concentrations, and strontium isotope levels of defatted poultrymeat from different geographical locations around the world. Statistical analysis of the database should allow the best variables which characterise populations of poultrymeat from different countries to be selected. The model developed can be validated with unknown sampled to test its robustness and verification of origin.

Despite the globalisation of feed used for poultry, the research has shown that the uptake of hydrogen and oxygen stable isotopes from the poultry drinking water is a useful indicator of geographic origin as it reflects the global isotopic variation. Additional parameters, including carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios, and elemental concentrations of magnesium, thallium, rubidium and molybdenum, are also important in poultry origin determination. The multivariate methodology provided a means of distinguishing European poultry from third country poultry imports from South America, Thailand and China in the majority of cases. Cross-validation of the model gave 88% of poultry correctly classified with the country of origin. The method developed in this project will provide a valuable tool to verify the geographical origin of poultry, and in cases of fraudulent mislabelling will provide backup evidence to paper traceability.