Japan develops software to prevent food fraud

A team of researchers at Kyoto University in Japan has developed a DNA bar code reading software that can prevent deliberately misprinting of agricultural and seafood labels, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper today.

Using the above software, users can easily discover species of organisms based on information about their DNA sequences.

New Japanese software can help distinguish Pacific bluefin tuna fish and yellowfin tuna - (Photo: AFP)

Researcher Akifumi Tanabe, who plays a key role in developing new software, said: "The price of yellowfin and Pacific bluefin tuna varies considerably. However, if they are used as a dish, then even professionals are difficult to distinguish. If you use this software, you can easily spot the wrong label. '

The new software can also compare the DNA sequences of fish and other organisms with sequences of the same species stored in DNA data. By comparing DNA barcodes, the software can automatically identify which species the organism belongs to.

Even in the case of new species, the software can determine which species belong to them and how they relate to existing species.

DNA data has been established in Japan, the United States and Europe, which contains DNA sequences of about 288,000 species.

To date, the work of detecting which species are most dependent on the knowledge of the experts. Therefore, the evaluation is sometimes inaccurate and the results often vary, depending on the individual.