Canadian sausage makers have improved their performance, judging by research conducted at the University of Guelph.
Four years ago they found 20 per cent of the sausages picked up at retail stores had meat other than the label claimed.
This time it’s down to 14 per cent.
"The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) took follow-up action after our initial study, and it appears that it had an impact," Robert Hanner, lead author and integrative biology professor at the university's Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, said in a university press release.
Published in the journal Food Research International, the study involved sausage packages labeled as containing only one type of meat.
The researchers used DNA barcoding along with digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology to determine which meats were in the sausage samples.
The same technology is being used by the CFIA to detect fraud in the marketing of "pure virgin olive oil".
