Provenance Determination of Fruit

Although most fresh produce is sold locally, there is a growing trend in the export of fresh produce including fruits and vegetables. The international trade in fresh produce is particularly important for premium products. The increase in this global trade of such products raises the need for robust traceability systems. These traceability systems are critical as they not only protect the integrity of the supply of these products but also address all of the requirements of the importing countries quarantine and bio security requirements.

As the product is being moved around the world in a fresh, bio-degradable state it is critical that things go according to plan and that the integrity of the traceability system is maintained at all times.

The TSW Analytical Food Forensics Division has completed research into the development of robust scientific tracing tools for a number of fruits, nuts and seeds. The tools have been demonstrated to be very powerful with recent work on kiwi fruit demonstrating that it is possible to robustly identify the country of origin of the fruit. This result was then validated using the seeds of the fruit. A blind trial was undertaken and all unknowns were successfully linked back to their country of origin.

To find out more about fruits we have investigated or if you are interested in developing a traceability tool for your product, please Contact Us.