FEED-CODE

"Animal feed certification instrument and procedure to guarantee the quality of meat and dairy products through automatic, simple and rapid DNA barcode method based on tubulin-based polymorphism (TBP)"

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The EU integrated approach to food safety needs effective control systems to assure safety and quality standards all along the food chain, including animal feed. This is not always straightforward, since several actors are involved in the chain, in some cases not from EU. Following regulation EC 767/2009, which has defined new “rules on the placing on the market and use of animal feed, including requirements for labelling, packaging and presentation”, a reliable and simple technical solution to measure the exact composition of compound feed for food animal is required by farmers to assure the quality of the final product (meat, milk or PDO cheese) and to certify compound feed sold, even in the form of bulk and within the same area. Presently existing analytical methods are sophisticated and not accessible to SME and small regional producers. The FEED-CODE project aims to develop a reliable, simple and cheap methodology and instrument for the fingerprinting of each individual plant species used in compound feed, through the tubulin-based polymorphism (TBP) method, which, in contrast to other PCR-based methods, does not require detailed knowledge of DNA sequences, but identifies the specie through a simple DNA barcode. This allows to quantify the presence of each individual components in complex mixtures, even in case of very small amounts (detection limit <1% weight). The tangible outcomes of FEED-CODE will be: 1. Specific probes for the identification of 30 plant species of European Catalogue of feed materials; 2. Easy to use and automatic FEED-CODE instrument for reliable and precise detection of plant species in compound mixes; 3. New standard procedure for labeling animal feed, in compliance with EC regulation and with the needs for quality and anti-fraud certification of farmers and PDO producers. The consortium has a consistent and widespread representation of the sector, guaranteeing direct audience of more than 2 million farmers in Europe.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

An EU project is devising a way of determining and certifying the species composition of animal feed using genetic methods. The project has prioritised 31 species, and so far two assay procedures consistently identify the target DNA.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

To address food quality issues, new European regulations impose strict requirements concerning the labelling, packaging and presentation of animal feed. The regulations mean that producers must state the exact species composition of the feed, which is not a simple matter.

European producers need a system for accurately, and preferably automatically, determining feed composition. Developing such a method is the goal of the EU-funded http://www.feedcode-project.eu (FEED-CODE) project. The 11-member consortium aims to provide a code for certifying the exact composition of animal feed, in accordance with the regulations. The project concept is based on molecular biology, giving the ability to genetically detect a variety of plant species (including undeclared) in the feed mixture. Work relies on two patents made available by the Italian government. Work began in early 2012 and concludes in November 2015.

Achievements during the first 15 months include verifying the applicability of the process via an analysis of needs and priorities, including definition of the project's system. Another early step was identifying a list of 31 priority species, and creation of a suitable database. The team confirmed that the tubulin-based polymorphism (TBP) genetic assay procedure could be reliably automated using a modified capillary electrophoresis (CE)-TBP.

Project researchers prepared two different kinds of species-specific molecular probes. Both showed consistent results, and for both the investigators defined appropriate protocols for DNA isolation. Furthermore, protocols for DNA extraction and purification have been developed, as has an inhibitory test.

Early testing of the genetic methods allowed assessment of the limits of the CE-TBP. The project also prepared prototype software. The group has prepared measurement protocols for the entire platform, and preliminary system validation on feed samples has been conducted.

FEED-CODE will result in a system capable of automatically determining the species composition of animal feed samples. That will afford greater compliance with EU regulations according to a new standard, and allow certification of compliant producers and products.