Advances of DNA-based methods for tracing the botanical origin of food products

The need for accurate and reliable methods for plant species identification in nature and in food products has steadily increased during past decades, particularly with the recent food scares and the development of trade and technological progress in food production. Moreover, the development of high added value products based on plants has raised concerns about adulteration. Thus, reliable methods to protect the producer, the company and the customer are needed. Fresh food products without any processing are suitable for many types of analytical or molecular analyses. But as most of foodstuff samples are processed to some extent, DNA is usually altered and fragmented into small fragments. However, extensive research has been performed and DNA based methods for food authenticity are becoming the methods of choice. Herein DNA based methods for species identification and authenticity in foods as well as quantitation methods, are based on DNA. These methodologies progress extremely fast; thus a review on the current state of the art on DNA based methods is useful in order to assess the field. The problems, advantages and disadvantages of the methods are also discussed. The trend of high throughput DNA technologies is recognized.