Dublin based company IdentiGEN has secured €1.8m in funding to industrialise the use of DNA profiling in food labelling.

Currently, labels on food are used to provide traceability along with information on food origin, quality and safety.

IdentiGEN secured the funding under the disruptive technology fund which was rolled out by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation which has given out over €75m in funding to 27 businesses.

IdentiGEN specialises in DNA traceability for the meat and seafood sectors and have operations in Ireland, UK, USA and Europe.

Over the next ten years some €500 million will be allocated through the fund, which was announced as part of Project Ireland 2040.

Improved confidence

IdentiGEN’s managing director and founder Ciarán Meghen said the funding will be used to further develop genomic technologies to improve confidence in the origin, quality and safety of food.

He said: “Food labelling is a major cost to industry and has been shown to be vulnerable to abuse and fraud. IdentiGEN has identified an approach to transform and industrialise the use of DNA profiling in food labelling.”

The ‘Beyond Food Labelling’ project will work in tandem with the animal genomics lab in UCD and will aim to “transform the cost base of DNA analysis, making the technology widely applicable”.

Meghen added that by doing so they would be able to disrupt the food labelling status quo.

Read more

8% of meat in Scotland fails DNA tests