DNA metabarcoding for quality control of basil, oregano and paprika

Herbs and spices are among the most vulnerable products to fraud [1]. The standard analytical tests are accurate to detect specific marker compounds, but they cannot assess the entire species composition of multi-ingredient products. To overcome this limitation, untargeted diagnostic tools are recomanded to be used in order to ensure the quality and safety of such complex products [2] [3]. In this study, DNA metabarcoding was used for the authentication of 62 products, containing basil, oregano, and paprika, collected from different retailers and importers in Norway. Our results showed varying degrees of discrepancy between constituent species and those listed on the products labels, despite the high product authenticity. We recomand that integrating DNA metabarcoding into the toolbox of analytical methods for quality control and assesment of fresh and/or processed plant-based products can considerably improve their quality.

The data presented in this paper was generated in a project commissioned by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet), within the "Overvåkning- og kontroll-program for krydder 2018 (57237)" project. This work was partially supported by a grant of the Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation, CNCS – UEFISCDI, project number 157/2020 within PNCDI III.

Publication History

Article published online:
13 December 2021

• References

• 1 Galvin-King P, Haughey SA, Elliott CT. Herb and spice fraud; the drivers, challenges and detection. Food Control 2018; 88: 85-97
• 2 Raclariu AC, Heinrich M, Ichim MC, de Boer H. Benefits and limitations of DNA barcoding and metabarcoding in herbal product authentication. Phytochemical Analysis 2018; 29: 123-128
• 3 Raclariu-Manolică AC, Anmarkrud JA, Kierczak M., Rafati N., Thorbek B., Schrøder-Nielsen A., De Boer H.J. DNA Metabarcoding for quality control of basil, oregano, and paprika. Frontiers in plant science 2021; 12: 665618