Food-item authentication and traceability is an issue of primary concern, due to both socio-economical and health implications. DNA-based methods are increasingly being recognised as powerful tools to assess the reliability of supplier labels for any type of food. This is especially true for products characterised by a short shelf life and high-processing supply chain, such as seafood. In this work, a DNA barcoding approach was applied to assess the accuracy of species labelling in 150 cephalopod seafood products sold in the Italian market. Overall, high levels of mislabelling in squid, cuttlefish, and octopus items were identified, and in some cases, even species not included in the current food Regulations. Additionally, an application of the recently developed naked-eye detection tool ‘NanoTracer’, consisting in the combination of DNA barcoding with gold nanoparticle-based, was demonstrated to authenticate common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) seafood. The primer pairs used to set the fast detection system for S. officinalis were designed based on the most comprehensive DNA barcoding (COI and 16s rRNA) datasets ever assembled for cephalopods, assuring the specificity of the method. ‘NanoTracer’ allowed a simple, rapid, accurate and cost-effective authentication, revealing its potential adaptability to any type of seafood and other food categories.

中文翻译：

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从DNA条形码到基于纳米颗粒的比色测试：头足类认证的新领域

由于对社会经济和健康的影响，食品项目的认证和可追溯性是一个主要问题。基于DNA的方法日益被视为评估任何类型食品的供应商标签可靠性的有力工具。对于具有较短保质期和高加工供应链的产品（例如海产品）尤其如此。在这项工作中，采用了DNA条形码方法来评估在意大利市场上出售的150种头足类海鲜产品中种类标签的准确性。总体而言，在鱿鱼，乌贼和章鱼中发现了高度错误的标签，在某些情况下，甚至包括了当前食品法规中未包括的物种。此外，最近开发的肉眼检测工具“ NanoTracer”的应用棕褐色的海鲜）。根据有史以来为头足类动物组装的最全面的DNA条形码（COI和16s rRNA）数据集，设计了用于设置山茱。快速检测系统的引物对，以确保该方法的特异性。“ NanoTracer”可以进行简单，快速，准确和具有成本效益的认证，从而显示出其对任何类型的海鲜和其他食品类别的潜在适应性。