Herbs and spices are among the most vulnerable products to fraud [1]. The standard analytical tests are accurate to detect specific marker compounds,
but they cannot assess the entire species composition of multi-ingredient products.
To overcome this limitation, untargeted diagnostic tools are recomanded to be used
in order to ensure the quality and safety of such complex products [2]
[3]. In this study, DNA metabarcoding was used for the authentication of 62 products,
containing basil, oregano, and paprika, collected from different retailers and importers
in Norway. Our results showed varying degrees of discrepancy between constituent species
and those listed on the products labels, despite the high product authenticity. We
recomand that integrating DNA metabarcoding into the toolbox of analytical methods
for quality control and assesment of fresh and/or processed plant-based products can
considerably improve their quality.
The data presented in this paper was generated in a project commissioned by the Norwegian
Food Safety Authority (Mattilsynet), within the "Overvåkning- og kontroll-program
for krydder 2018 (57237)" project. This work was partially supported by a grant of
the Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation, CNCS – UEFISCDI, project number
157/2020 within PNCDI III.
