Organic eggs that aren’t actually organic? It has been difficult to prove that eggs are being labelled incorrectly – but that is now set to change. Researchers have found a way to determine how eggs are kept. The method could also be used in other areas – for example in the control of cannabis.

A new test procedure can detect with a high hit rate whether an egg sold as organic actually comes from organic farmingThe method, which uses nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR spectroscopy), has an accuracy of 99.9 percent, said Andreas Juadjur, head of chemical analysis at the German Institute of Food Technology (DIL) in Quakenbrück (Osnabrück district). The research project was funded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture as part of a program to promote organic farming.

The process allows conclusions to be drawn about the profile of the individual ingredients of an egg in a short time, explained Juadjur: “We basically take a fingerprint of the egg and compare this fingerprint in the form of the ingredient profile with our database.” Previously, the Quakenbrück scientists had spent two and a half years 4,500 eggs were examined and a database was created.

Egg inspection: procedure uses artificial intelligence

The aim was to develop a model to identify eggs whose origin is unknown. Conclusions about the origin The accuracy of the method depends on the validity of the samples deposited, said Juadjur. The difficulty was that in conventional hen farming there are usually only three different breeds of chicken. In organic farming there are many more breeds. The breed of chicken also influences the ingredient profile of the egg.

The project has shown that it is possible to establish such models with the help of artificial intelligence with a sufficiently large data set in order to create future analyses of the origin of animal foods. “The scientific part is done“If you want to use this as a verification tool, you would have to check the data every year and also expand it,” said Juadjur.

Process not only suitable for eggs

According to Juadjur, the DIL scientists have also shown that NMR spectroscopy can be used to detect the difference between dry-aged and wet-aged meat in beef. The method could potentially be used for any food of animal origin.

The aim of the project was to find a method to prove that organic farming is being carried out. This would give farmers the opportunity to confirm the accuracy of the labelling so that the Consumers have confidence in the products Juadjur said: “There are cases where cheating occurs, and it is important that this can be checked again on the analytical side.”

Quickly uncover food scandals

The process also makes it possible to uncover food scandals more quickly. Juadjur recalled the melamine scandal in China, in which the basic plastic product melamine was mixed into milk powder to create the illusion of a higher protein content. 300,000 young children became illsix died.

In this case, the NMR-based method would not have detected the melamine, but it would have noticed that something was wrong. “With one measurement, we can see in 20 minutes whether there are any abnormalities in the spectrum of the ingredients,” he said.

Options for controlling hemp cultivation

Juadjur’s team already has another idea of ​​how the process based on NMR spectroscopy could be used: it could also be used to analyse the ingredients of hemp. After the legalisation of cannabis, this could be a way of keeping statistics on the hemp varieties grown, for example on the proportion of the intoxicating component THC. “This could be fed back to politicians so that they can use this data to can assess the impact of the legislation“, said Juadjur.