How Does It Work?

“you are what you eat”

The traditional context of ‘you are what you eat’ often relates to nutrition and health, but the same phrase can be applied when demonstrating how it is possible to trace food back to its source or origin. The flow diagram below is a visual representation of the chemical link between the growing, harvesting and processing of food — from the farm to the supermarket shelf to your dinner table. The direct interaction of all animal and plant based food with the Earth, provides the fundamental source of trace elements. It is these trace elements that are incorporated into the plants from the soil and local geology. Therefore it is possible to establish the origin of a plant itself and the food products (i.e tea, coffee and fruit) using trace elements, as these are a reflection of where the plant was grown.

With specific reference to animals (e.g pigs), the flow diagram above illustrates that the feed (plant based and hence has a local geology), feed supplements (possibly plant or even mineral based origin), local water and environment will all contribute to the trace elements in the final meat product. The almost unlimited numbers of combinations of these factors is what provides the potential for differentiating meat that comes from different batches and the relevance of the phrase ‘you are what you eat’. It is possible to construct a profile of trace elements present in the food. This profile is essentially a pattern of elements present and is unique, in a similar way to a physical fingerprint. This pattern of elements or ‘elemental fingerprint’ is a representation of what the food is and provides an indication of where it has come from.