Success Story COMET

FFoQSI Austrian Competence Centre for Feed and Food Quality, Safety and Innovation

Programm e: COMET – Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies Programme line: K1-Centres

COMET subproject, duration and type of project: Authenticity & Origin, 07/2017 – 12/2020, strategic

Determination of the provenance of sturgeon caviar

Summary – A method to identify the authenticity and provenance of sturgeon caviar was de- veloped based on a multi chemical fingerprint which allows the tracing of a single egg back to the aquaculture in which the caviar was harvested. The method provides a substantial mile- stone in the ‘fight against fraud by analytical methods’.

Caviar the “Black Gold” measure serves to promote legal caviar trading and sustainable aquaculture. Sturgeon caviar, the processed unfertilized eggs (roe) of Acipenseriformes species, is one One of the most promising approaches to de- of the most expensive food commodities in the termining origin is the analysis of the elemental world. and isotopic composition of caviar. This intrinsic "chemical fingerprint" is taken up by the fish As aquaculture production of caviar continues to primarily via water and fish feed and is, there- develop, there is a decline in the population of fore, difficult to counterfeit. The elemental and wild sturgeon, mainly due to overuse, poaching, isotopic composition of caviar may then be illegal trade and destruction of natural habitats. compared to fish farming water. If the "finger- Moreover, caviar smuggling using local farms as prints" match, the correct labelling of the exam- front to e. g. avoid paying the local taxes and ined caviar can be confirmed. duties on the import of the caviar has been documented to take place at a large and global scale. As a result, the trade in sturgeon caviar Analytical methods to fight food fraud was regulated by the Convention on Internation- al Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna The project aimed at the identification of the and Flora (CITES). These measures include major chemical discriminators of fish caviar of legal caviar identification using a single labelling different origin. In a comprehensive study, water, system. However, current measures to control fish feed, salt, raw and salted caviar from seven compliance with labelling requirements are sturgeon fish farms (one in Austria, one in based primarily on low-level administrative Germany, four in Italy and one in Iran) were controls. Therefore, analytical tools are needed investigated. The samples were analysed for to verify the authenticity and origin of sturgeon their elemental and isotopic composition of caviar clearly and forgery-proof. Ultimately, this strontium (87Sr/86Sr) using inductively-coupled

plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). This But also salted caviar could be discriminated technique allows precise measurements of the amongst the individual fish farms, even though elemental and isotopic composition at ultra-trace the direct link to the geographically typical levels (down to ng g-1). parameters of e. g. the water were masked. In order to retrieve the original information of the The major breakthrough was the identification of fish farm, provided mainly by the water and to a the major parameters, which led to a 100 % lesser extent by the feed, a mathematical meth- discrimination of the investigated fish farms. Our od for the correction of the influence of salt on results showed that sturgeon caviar of different the 87Sr/86Sr isotopic composition was devel- origin could be best characterized via the oped. 87Sr/86Sr isotopic as well as the Fe/Ca, Mg/Ca, K/Ca, Co/Ca, Na, Mg, Mn, Cu, As, Rb and Mo elemental composition of water and feed. There- Impact and effects fore, these chemical parameters represented The developed method provides an unam- site specific environmental markers. Since biguous tool to identify the authenticity and multiple isotopic and elemental markers could geographical origin of caviar. The method can be obtained, the chemical fingerprint has the be refined by using light stable isotopes (C, O, potential to provide a forgery-proof intrinsic H, N, S) in combination. information to identify the provenance of caviar.

Fig. 1: Analysis and data interpretation (from left: Abb. 2: Sturgeon caviar from aquaculture helps to A. Tchaikovsky, T. Prohaska, A. Zitek, J. Irrgeher) protect the species © A. Zitek, FFoQSI © VIRIS Lab, BOKU A logical next step to fight illegal trade and An additional aspect to be considered when support sustainable aquaculture and species dealing with caviar is, that commercially availa- protection is the development of an international ble caviar is usually salted. Salting was found to caviar database in collaboration with different have a significant effect on the 87Sr/86Sr, Fe, Mn institutions and organizations. and As composition of caviar.

Contact and information K1-Centre FFoQSI

FFoQSI GmbH Project coordinator Technopark 1C, A-3430 Tulln Thomas Prohaska, T +43 2272 22700 Andreas Zitek E [email protected], www.ffoqsi.at

Project partners Organisation Country University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Austria Vienna, Department of Chemistry, VIRIS Laboratory Grüll GmbH Austria Agroittica Lombarda SpA Italy University of Padova Italy University of Guilan Iran

Further information on COMET – Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies: www.ffg.at/comet This success story was provided by the consortium leader/centre management for the purpose of being published on the FFG website . FFG does not take responsibility for the accuracy, completeness and the currentness of the information stated.