Syngene, a world-leading manufacturer of image analysis solutions, is delighted to announce its G:BOX EF gel documentation system is being used by a major European analytical testing company for rapid authentication of food contents.  

Scientists at the analytical testing company, based in the UK are using a G:BOX EF imaging system to accurately analyse agarose gels containing PCR products of animal DNA stained with SYBR^® Safe dye. This is helping them to detect any types of meat or fish that should not be in the food samples being tested.  

A manager at the analytical testing company stated: "Processed foods can sometimes be adulterated using other types of fish or meat than those stated on the label. The scarcity and high demand for certain fish species can lead to substitution with cheaper ones for financial gain. To safeguard the public and help companies comply with food labeling regulations, it is our job to detect any possible adulteration with species not declared on the label. Using PCR primers for several animal species, we perform PCR on the DNA from processed products to determine what types of DNA are there." 

He continued: "However, the amount of DNA we have to detect is often in the nanogram range and for our tests to be effective we need a sensitive fluorescence imager. Since the G:BOX EF can easily detect 20ng of SYBR Safe stained DNA we routinely choose to use this system for our DNA detection. Also because it is one of the easiest to use imagers I have worked with and gives us the answers we're looking for every time, we'll be using this system more and more in the future."  

Laura Sullivan, Syngene's Divisional Manager commented: "We are pleased the G:BOX EF is suited to the rigorous levels of analytical testing this high profile company demands. Their reproducible qualitative results are a great endorsement of the system's performance and show scientists wanting accurate DNA analysis in a quality control environment that a G: BOX EF gel documentation system is a key purchase."

For further information please visit http://www.syngene.com