Traceability of Edible Bird's Nest Through DNA Barcoding

Modern society in a fast-paced world demand food that is not only edible, fresh, nutritious, authentic and safe but at the same time is instantly available. Unfortunately, this situation is manipulated by irresponsible quarters leading to fraudulence of food thus raising major concerns among the society especially in terms of safety and health. One of the food commodities subject to fraudulence is Malaysia edible bird's nest (EBN) due to its high market value and limited supply in the market. To protect the consumers it is therefore crucial to address scientific approach towards the development of reliable tool for analysis of food. In this paper a molecular approach using DNA barcoding is discussed for the traceability analysis of Malaysia edible bird's nest (EBN) starting from sample collection, pre-treatment, analysis to data interpretation. (author)