L' industria delle Carni e le Denominazioni di Razza: Ruolo degli strumenti Genomici ai fini della Tracciabilità

In the last decade, consumer concerns over food safety and request for information about food producers have increased following alarms about food contamination and animal epidemics. As a consequence, compulsory livestock traceability systems have been implemented all along the production chains, based on paper certifications and electronic support. concurrently, changes in customer demand have led to a rising request for typical and traditional products, linked to specific geographic regions, and expression of historic and cultural heritage of local areas. In such scenario, we assist to an increasing interest by the meat industry in developing techniques to certify the breed origin of meat products, since livestock breed names are increasingly being seen as brand names and they could represent powerful marketing tools for developing sustainable production systems in many marginal areas. Tests for breed identity are therefore useful means for validating origin and authenticity of livestock products. We report the use of a likelihood ratio approach appliewd to STR loci to confirm the feasibility of a genomic traceability system for the verification and protection of the Chianina origin of meat cuts. We also consider a different methodology based on the research of possible breed-specific polymorphisms in coat color genes in cattle.