Food forensics: Analysis of food, raw and processed materials with molecular biological methods

Abstract The identification of species is vital for product quality control as well as for detection of fraud and even more so for the investigation of crimes when biological trace material is found. They all have in common that the correct assignment of biological samples to species is aggravated due to highly degraded (e.g. due to heavy processing) or low amounts of DNA. Here we present examples of successful identification of species and even varieties in raw and processed materials such as textiles, seafood and plant products. We also show the use of two different methods for quantification of fractions different species contributed to a sample.