DNA Particles Could Prevent Olive Oil Counterfeiting
Detecting fraudulent olive oil A schematic showing how particles in olive oil can be separated with a magnet and analyzed. ACS Nano Is your olive oil really 100% olive oil? The question is more important than it probably seems. In recent years, counterfeit oils have become big business; One European Union anti-fraud trafficker said that the profits from counterfeit olive oil are “comparable to cocaine trafficking, with none of the risks.” Olive oil is often cut with less expensive vegetable oil and disguised with chlorophyll and beta carotene to look genuine, and fakes are surprisingly difficult to detect. One new research project that hopes to change that. Scientists from ETH Zurich have created tiny magnetic DNA particles that can be encapsulated in silica, and mixed in with the oil. The DNA can store tons of information such...