Molecular biology techniques

AZTI-Tecnalia’s molecular biology laboratory responds to the needs of companies in the food industry by applying state-of-the-art techniques in Molecular Biology for the analysis, characterisation and study of vegetable, animal and food samples.

The authentication of commercialised products becomes a major problem the moment external characteristics are lost during product processing, making it impossible to identify the species of origin. Therefore, the capacity to identify species of commercial interest is acquiring a great deal of importance in the agrifood industry, enabling companies to control their raw materials and avoiding fraud in the labelling of processed products.

Molecular Biology techniques are able to resolve the main challenges posed by the transformation and commercialisation of food products, quickly and precisely. In particular:

• Food Traceability: authentication of animal and vegetable species, and analysis of genetically modified organisms.
• Diagnosis of pathogenic agents (virus, bacteria and funguses) in plants, animals and food using PCR techniques.
• Genetic characterisation of vegetable and animal samples: We have the technology required to obtain species genetic markers in order to identify any other kind of organism on the basis of the DNA extracted from the foods.

There are many advantages to using these techniques in companies: as well as speed of diagnosis, they ensure the reliability of the results obtained.

We are also an ideal technology partner for the development of R&D activities in food companies, to which we provide consultancy services and technical assistance in the matter of biotechnological applications.