Automated Extraction of DNA from Various Food Samples

Quality food and its impact on health is becoming more important to costumers. This aspect together with food scandals of the recent past push the food industry to make their products more transparent. One important issue is the origin of raw materials. This point touches topics like the use of materials derived from genetically modified organisms as well as the use of the correct materials indicated on the list of ingredients. An effective method to investigate the origin of materials and genetic background of ingredients in processed food are technologies based on Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), as these methods are very sensitive. In order to use PCR-based technologies for the analysis of food, a certain amount and quality of DNA is required. Some sample materials (e.g. plant samples, processed food) contain significant levels of inhibitors, which inhibit PCR-based downstream applications and therefore interfere with analysis.