Finding Adulteration Even When Not Looking For It

Leading the way with non-targeted screening

When you search for something specific, that’s probably all you are likely to find. By removing the constraints of targeted analysis and searching without restriction, Eurofins companies have opened up a whole world of new possibilities.

Eurofins’ evolution of non-targeted screening methods is one of the company’s most exciting developments. Teams from across the company have pioneered wider screening techniques covering a range of sectors, from food and pharmaceutical, to environment and water. A very prominent example of an unexpected, and hence missed issue that evolved into a scandal was the addition of the industrial chemical melamine found in baby milk in China in 2008. Another was the addition of horse meat to beef in Europe in 2013. Such fraudulent practices were never expected and so were not explicitly searched for. Non-targeted screening tests are enabling a whole variety of industries to better guard against health crises.

High-resolution nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) testing is one example for such an untargeted screening approach. Eurofins’ method is now able to provide additional insights to those offered through conventional approaches. This investigative technique allows for the detection of hidden anomalies, such as the addition of sugar to honey, or the mislabelling of geographical or botanical origins in the composition of a complex matrix. The approach can be applied to liquids or extracts from solid foods, requiring only limited preparation of the sample.

Another pioneering technique from Eurofins’ laboratories is a new non-targeted screening method, based on 16S rDNA screening and Next Generation Sequencing. Used to profile the microbiome of food, pharmaceutical and environmental samples, the test focuses on identifying the micro-organism communities present, helping to recognise a broad spectrum of bacteria. For example, the test can be used for the control of fermentation processes or the analysis of biofilms (a thin microbial layer). The tests require no assumption to be made about a given species of interest, and all species included in the database can be identified in one test.

These sophisticated testing methods also have numerous applications in the environmental world. Eurofins Vejen is working with the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, to develop an untargeted method, ChemFingSOIL®, to assess environmental hydrocarbon pollution.

The first commercial project to use this technique, which examines the origin of hydrocarbon pollution in soil, was launched in February 2017. In 2021, ChemFingSOIL® was followed by ChemFingAIR™. This method, based on measurement of indoor air and soil air, analyses with advanced data modelling to determine the contribution and flux of volatile pollutants from underlying soil pollution to the indoor environment of a house.

And this is only the beginning. Eurofins’ laboratories globally are developing a whole range of other non-targeted screening techniques. Eurofins’ insights are helping to ensure that consumers and the wider world at large are fully informed about exactly what is in the products we all consume.

The science behind