Customer reference

NAQS

NAQS is a Korean state organization supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Detection of fraud and adulteration in food

Activity: Control of the safety and quality of agri-food products
Context: Need a fast analytical technique for checking the origin of Kimchi (fermented Chinese cabbage) and detect potential fraud on product origin
Equipment: HERACLES Electronic Nose
Website: http://www.naqs.go.kr/english/index.jsp

Detection of fraud on food product origin

Its mission is to manage agri-food quality to provide consumers with safe and good agri-food products. The responsibilities of NAQS include agri-food safety investigation, eco-friendly products and Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certification system, management of origin and GMO labeling, inspection of agricultural commodities and registration of agro-businesses.

Kimchi is a traditional fermented Korean side dish made of fermented Chinese cabbage with a variety of seasonings. It is a very popular food product in Korea.

Due to its rather expensive price, frauds on the product origin are frequent. Suppliers do not hesitate to label “Made in Korea” products they sourced from other countries such as China for example.

“The Electronic Nose is a fast and reliable tool for detecting fraud on food products origin”

Conventional methods for product authentication are time-consuming, that’s why NAQS has implemented a testing method based on HERACLES Electronic Nose, which allows a fast and accurate identification of Kimchi origin. The recognition model set up with this instrument can successfully predict the origin of the tested samples with 99% accuracy and thus reliably recognise counterfeited products.