Researchers at the university have developed a new technique to identify unwanted animal products in ground beef, using a laser-equipped spectrometer and statistical analysis. DNA testing can already identify foreign species in meat products, but it can’t locate offal, such as hearts, livers, kidneys and stomachs, mixed in with meat of the same species. The study doesn’t make any findings about whether this is happening, but it does lay the groundwork for future studies to test beef products from Canadian supermarkets to see if they contain offal. Instead, Hu and fellow food science students made their own meat samples by grinding together beef and offal. Beef products in several countries were found to contain undeclared horse meat, prompting outrage from consumers.

Source: National Post November 25, 2017 12:00 UTC