ABSTRACT
There is rising consumer demand for guarantees on the quality and safety of their food, especially for farmed-animal products. This growing need is largely driven by frequent widely-publicized food safety scares, and cases of inappropriate risk management practices. Consumers are aware that the quality of an animal product is largely determined by production conditions, and are pressing for guaranteed traceability on food chain. High on the list of the critical control issues is the animal production systems used to farm livestock, particularly diet and the feedstuffs consumed by the animals which impact the quality of animal-origin foods. Animal diet authentication from these products obtained with particular animal diet is thus a growing demand, even if other rearing parameters can make it difficult the authentication diagnosis. The chapter reviews the candidate markers in foods of animal origin for authenticating animal diet and discusses the relevant analytical means of characterizing these key compounds.
