Discrimination of beef production system and regional geography by multivariate analysis of stable isotope ratios (C, N, S, O, H)

Closer to home than many of our customers, the objectives of this research project was to understand more about how guarantees of the authenticity of food products – increasingly important for consumer confidence and are legal requirement in most jurisdictions – can be verified.

As part of the research, Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis (SIRA) of C, N, S, O and H was conducted by Elemental Analysis–Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (EA-IRMS) using Isolab Scientific’s Europa Scientific elemental analyser and 20–20 IRMS. 

The paper’s conclusions, below, demonstrated the potential of stable isotope ratios for authenticating grass-based beef.

The results demonstrate that stable isotope ratios are reliable and robust biomarkers for the authentication of beef provenance, even in a large commercial beef sample set, where diets are more heterogeneous, including in temporal aspects of strategic concentrate supplementation in grassland-based beef production. CDA models can successfully discriminate between beef production systems, where the system is typified by diet, based on the stable isotope composition. The class-modelling approach verified the dietary background of grass-, partially grass- and concentrate-fed beef in a controlled feeding trial, and it also distinguished grass-fed beef from concentrate-fed Irish commercial beef. Discriminating between partially grass-fed or intermediate diets composed of pasture or grass silage with concentrates proved difficult due to the similarities of the dietary components. Further analysis using a combination of complementary markers such as trace elements combined with SIRA and a larger sample set may prove more comprehensive and provide ever greater assurance of provenance.

Undertaken by a team from UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, the UCD School of Earth Sciences and the UCD School of Mathematics & Statistics University College Dublin, the project (17F252, ‘BEEF SIG’) was funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine of the Government of Ireland.

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095671352600099X