Meat authenticity and traceability

Over the last decades, the supply and the demand for meat and meat-derived products have evolved creating a big gap between the production and the consumption phases. The consumers cannot directly control the production systems, which are driven by the globalization of the food market. Industrialized processes can modify the original raw food materials and increase the number of intermediate steps to obtain a final product. Therefore, suppliers and production chains had to adapt their production systems to meet consumers’ requests, and new regulations have been issued at the national and international levels to rule markets and to protect consumers’ rights. In addition, production chains and producers have developed new marketing strategies focused on product differentiation based on quality assurance, breed and geographical origin, or specific processing practices usually linked to traditional and unique products. This chapter provides an overview of the main concepts that then lead the application of different analytical approaches and methodologies used for meat and meat product authentication and traceability and identifies new avenues for future developments in this area. Analytical methods are considered according to the detection of product components and characteristics (biological characteristics or molecules and chemical elements; physical-chemical characteristics) based on intrinsic or extrinsic factors or properties of the meat.