Is food labelled as vegan really vegan? What about Halal or Kosher food?

• AZTI leads EthiChain, an EIT Food funded project focused on the development and validation of an innovative rapid DNA analysis systems to allow verification of presence of unwanted species in food with ethical concerns (vegan, Halal and Kosher)
• Obtained results will be digitized and directly integrated into company´s traceability system
• The EthiChain turning point solution will contribute to strengthen consumers´ trust in the European food system

Derio, 11 November, 2021 – The EIT Food EthiChain project is an initiative led by the technological centre AZTI, to develop  innovative DNA analysis systems that, in a fast and portable way, will make it possible to verify the authenticity of food products aimed at communities with certain ethical or religious requirements such as vegan, halal and kosher. These types of products, characterized by the need to control all stages of the supply chain, require exhaustive monitoring to ensure consumer confidence through more transparent production. EIT Food is the world’s largest Agrifood Innovation Ecosystem supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

Specifically, the project will develop three independent solutions: one to detect animal DNA in vegan products, another one to detect pork in Halal products and a third one to detect horse/donkey and pork DNA in Kosher products.

These rapid and portable DNA identification systems would be easy-to-use and will allow in situ sample analysis and obtention of results in less than one hour. Also, since the systems will not require specialized personnel or complex equipment, usage barriers will be minimum, making them suitable for direct implementation in routine analysis in food industries, retailers and control laboratories.

The analysis results will be digitalized through a specific app that will allow automatic data integration into each company´s existing traceability system, contributing to the improvement of the respective supply chain traceability. All the information regarding a certain product, including results from food sensing analysis, would be gathered, and made accessible to the whole food chain involved, providing the complete picture of the product quality.

EIT Food EthiChain is a project funded by EIT Food and formed by technological companies (ART21, from Lithuania and SwissDeCode from Switzerland), research centres (AZTI from Spain,  and Technion from Israel) and the University of Bolonia (Italy).

Download the press release here.