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The aim of this literature review of 51 scientific papers was to answer the question - "What is the mislabelling rate in seafood products sold on the Italian market?“. Samples were considered mislabelled when the species found by DNA analysis did not correspond with the description on the label. The most sampled seafood taxa were fish (83.8%): mackerels, cods, herrings, flatfishes and jacks were the most represented species. Unprocessed fillet/slice was the most analysed retail form (61.4%), and samples were collected at retail premises (76.5%) in 10 Italian regions. The overall weighted mislabelling rate was 28.4%, with the highest levels of mislabelling reported in samples of jellyfishes, European perch, European grouper, Atlantic mackerel and samples labelled as “spinarolo”, “baccalà” or “palombo”. There were also geographical differences and type of retail channel.

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DNA analysis to check wine authenticity and integrity has been reported in several previous studies. This study examines the survival of DNA during wine storage, before and after bottling in the  case of a large Italian wine cooperative. Two monovarietal productions: red sparkling Bonarda PDO and white Pinot gris PDO, were followed starting from the end of oenological practices until 1 year after bottling. The wine was analysed using SSR (simple sequence repeats or microsatellites) DNA analysis for four consecutive months before bottling, and month 2, 8 and 12 after bottling. The results showed that after 8 months, DNA degradation increased significantly in the red wine samples in particular, which would hinder DNA traceability.

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Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is frequently adulterated with olive pomace oil and other vegetable oils. Although various official chemical methods are available for the detection of common adulterants in EVOO, these methods are laborious, time-consuming, and employ toxic chemicals. Thus, researchers have been exploring more rapid and accurate analytical techniques to detect and quantify adulteration in EVOO, and this review is focused on summarising the methods developed in the past few years. The review examines chromatographic, spectroscopic, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), DNA analysis and digital imaging approaches to detecting adulteration. The review concludes that the currently used official methods should be upgraded as they are reported to be less sensitive than these latest methods.  

 Read the abstract of the review here