Quality control of food products requires the development of powerful analytical tools and regulations to avoid fraud to consumers and ineffective product recalls. DNA barcoding represents a potential strategy for application in food traceability, which involves the use of exogeneous short DNA oligonucleotides (DNA markers) for tracing the origin of food, such as suppliers, producers, attributes, and points of distribution. However, it is generally considered that exogeneous DNA molecules are strongly shielded by complicated interactions with intrinsic ingredients and easily degraded in complex food systems. This consideration leads to the lack of analytical methods to readily identify DNA markers in food, thereby preventing one from exploiting the barcoding capability of DNA markers in food. In this work, we explored the applicability of DNA markers coupled with rapid DNA detection by gold nanoparticles to traceability of various liquid foods, including wines, condiments, and soft drinks. Our results revealed that the gold nanoparticles afford colorimetric identification of DNA markers in liquors, condiments, and milk with a quick (≤5 min) “yes” or “no” readout depending on the solution color. Importantly, the DNA markers stored in these liquid foods remain chemically stable and bioactive in hybridization within months, thereby allowing for barcoding liquid foods with considerably long shelf lives. Given the nutritional value of nucleic acids and the direct DNA identification avoiding complicated isolation and analysis, the present work could provide a practical approach to food traceability.

中文翻译：

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通过金纳米颗粒鉴定液态食品中的外源DNA：可追溯性的潜在应用

食品的质量控制要求开发强大的分析工具和法规，以避免对消费者的欺诈和无效的产品召回。DNA条形码代表了一种在食品可追溯性中应用的潜在策略，该策略涉及使用外源短DNA寡核苷酸（DNA标记）来追踪食品的来源，例如供应商，生产商，属性和分销地点。但是，通常认为外源性DNA分子被与内在成分的复杂相互作用强烈屏蔽，并且在复杂的食物系统中容易降解。这种考虑导致缺乏易于识别食品中DNA标记物的分析方法，从而阻止了人们利用食品中DNA标记物的条形码能力。在这项工作中，我们探索了DNA标记物的适用性以及金纳米颗粒对DNA的快速检测技术对各种液体食品（包括葡萄酒，调味品和软饮料）的可追溯性。我们的结果表明，金纳米颗粒可以比色法鉴定酒类，调味品和牛奶中的DNA标记，根据溶液的颜色，可以快速（≤5分钟）“是”或“否”读出。重要的是，这些液态食品中存储的DNA标记物在几个月内的杂交过程中仍保持化学稳定性和生物活性，从而可以对具有较长保质期的液态食品进行条形码编码。考虑到核酸的营养价值和直接的DNA鉴定，避免了复杂的分离和分析，目前的工作可以为食品溯源提供实用的方法。