Project abstract

Meat is one of the most important basic foodstuffs in human nutrition, being an important source of protein. World meat production is expected to double by 2050. Pigs red meat is consumed worldwide, representing about 36 % from world meat production. Romanians are important pork meat consumers, the annual mean quantity consumed per capita being around 36 kg. Pig breeding represents a traditional activity in Romania. The traceability of meat represents an important issue, due to the fact that it might poses a high influence on consumer perception about its quality. The scope of the project is to develop chemometric models to identify the differentiation best markers for the geographical origin, animal’s diet, and fatty acids profiles of Romanian investigated pork meat samples, in order to promote this food on unique market. Regarding the originality and novelty of the proposed project, so far, no official multi-isotopic analysis methods in the authentication of animal products exist. IRMS, as investigation method, will be corroborated with ICP-MS, GC-FID and chemometrics. We aim, also, to determine the fatty acids profile for Bazna pig versus those grown in intensive conditions, in order to promote Bazna pig indigenous race and its special characteristics. Besides recognized statistical treatments (like LDA), artificial neural networks (ANNs) will be used.