ABSTRACT
Authentication of fi sh and seafood is of high importance nowadays, mainly as a result of the increase in international trade of these products. Authentication can be either performed through generation of species-specifi c protein profi les or DNA profi les. The development and application of PCR-based techniques has been extensively examined due to their reliability, reproducibility and low cost. These methods enable the development of worldwide databanks. Techniques like FINS (forensically informative nucleotide sequencing), RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism), SSCP (single-stranded conformational polymorphism), RAPD and LP-RAPD (longprimer random amplifi ed polymorphic DNA) and AFLP (amplifi ed fragment length polymorphism) can be used to establish authentication methods (Bossier, 1999). Fish species cannot be easily identifi ed when their common identifying characteristics are removed on processing and when only a portion of fl esh can be examined. The examination of raw or cooked (under normal conditions) species can be easily performed by electrophoresis of the muscle proteins. Canned fi sh treated with heat sterilisation, cannot be examined using this procedure since the proteins are getting highly denatured. Degradation of DNA is also equally common. After amplifi cation, the analysis of the samples can be performed using various techniques, some of which are suitable for food control laboratories (Mackie et al., 1999).
