Study On Characteristics Of Traceability Information Of Cattle Tissues And Organs Based On Multi-element Fingerprint

To ensure the safety of beef consumption and development of cattle industry, there are increasing concerns about the establishment of a traceability technological system and relevant researches. As the characteristics of multi-element in beef are closely related to cattle growing environment, multi-element analysis is one of the promising and effective tracing technologies in the food industry. Many researches focusing on the feasibility study of multi-element analysis in food traceability have been done. It is reported that the characteristics of multi-element in beef are also affected by animal feeds. In practice, there may be situations that cattle are transferred between and fed at different places, and the feeds will also be changed with the seasons. These problems together with the discrepant enrichment of multi-element in different tissues and organs to some extent will challenge the application of this technology.Cattle transfer-feeding model experiments were conducted in this study in study fields including Taipusi Banner in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (TP), Yangling Zone in Shaanxi Province (YL) and Nanyang City in Henan Province (NY). Cattle muscles, hearts, livers, lungs and earth from the field feeds growing were sampled. Up to 57 kinds of elements were measured using HR-ICP-MS and ICP-OES. Differences in multi-element contents in cattle tissues and organs between samples from different regions and feeding periods were analyzed. Relationships on multi-element characteristics between animal organs and earth were also discussed. In addition, Tracing indexes which were suitable elements for geographical origin assignment in these study fields were selected. The objective of this study was to provide theoretical and methodological references to the research and application of multi-element analysis. The main conclusions were:(1) There were differences in multi-element fingerprint characteristics of cattle tissues and organs from TP, YL and NY. Elements with significant differences in the three regions were different in cattle tissues and organs. They were Y, Lu, Th, Ge, Cs, W, Rb, Fe, K, Al in muscle samples, In, Pr, Nd, Ni, Cs, W, Rb, Na in heart samples, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Sb, Th, U, Zr, Ga, Cs, W, Bi, Rb, As, Al in liver samples and Be, Nb, Eu, Gd, Tm, Ta, Th, Hf, Ga, Mo, Sn, W, Rb, Zn, K in lung samples. In addition, coefficients of variance of multi-element contents in samples from TP were relatively larger than those in samples from YL and NY.(2) There were elements with no significant differences in contents for samples from different feeding periods in TP and YL. In TP, they were Be, Cd, In, Tl, U, Ge, Li, Sc, Cr, Ga, Mo, Cs, W, Se, Sn, Cu, As, Zn, Ti, K, Ca, Na, Mg in muscle, In, Ta, Zr, Ni, Ga, Cs, Pb, Bi, Se, Sn, Cu, Zn, Ti, Fe, K, Mg in heart, Y, Cd, In, Sb, Eu, Ho, Er, Tl, Th, U, Zr, Hf, Ge, Te, Li, V, Cr, Ga, Mo, Cs, W, Pb, Sn, As, Zn, Ti, Mn, Fe, K, Ca, Na, Mg in liver and Be, Cd, In, Ge, Ba, Pb, Bi, Se, Sn, Cu, As, Zn, K, Ca, Na, Mg in lung. In YL, they were Be, Y, Nb, Cd, In, Sb, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Er, Yb, Lu, Ta, Tl, Th, U, Zr, Hf, Li, Sc, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Ga, W, Se, Sn, Cu, Sr, As, Zn, Ti, Mn, Fe, K, Ca, Na, Mg, Al in muscle, Y, Nb, Cd, In, Sb, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Tb, Dy, Er, Yb, Lu, Ta, Tl, Th, U, Zr, Li, Sc, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Ga, Mo, Pb, Bi, Se, Sn, Cu, As, Zn, Mn, Fe, K, Ca, Na, Mg, Al in heart, Y, Nb, Cd, In, Sb, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Yb, Lu, Tl, Th, U, Zr, Hf, Ge, Te, Sc, V, Co, Ni, Ga, Mo, Cs, Ba, W, Pb, Bi, Se, Sn, Cu, Sr, As, Zn, Ti, Mn, Fe, K, Ca, Na, Mg, Al in liver and Be, Y, Nb, Cd, In, Sb, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Lu, Ta, Tl, Th, U, Zr, Hf, Ge, Te, Li, Sc, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Ga, Mo, Cs, W, Pb, Bi, Sn, Cu, Sr, As, Zn, Ti, Mn, Fe, K, Na, Mg, Al in lung.(3) Characteristics of multi-element contents were different in cattle tissues and organs. Contents of Cd, Pb, Bi, Cu, Rb and Zn in liver samples were higher than those in other organs, the same for Y, Nb, In, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Er, Yb, Lu, Th, U, Zr, Hf, Ge, Li, Sc, V, Ba and Al in lung samples. Contents of Sb, La, Ce, Ga, Ti, Cr, Co, Ni, Se, Mo, Mn, Pr, Nd and Fe were relatively higher in liver and lung samples, the same for K, Mg and W in muscle and heart samples and Ta, Tl, Ca and Na in lung and heart samples.(4) Characteristics of multi-element contents in earth samples from TP, YL and NY were different. Contents of Hf,K and Sr were the highest in samples from TP, the same for La, Ce, Nd, Eu, Ta, Cu, Al, Ba, Se and Na in samples from NY, for Be, Tl, Zr, Li, Mo, Cs, Rb, Ca, Y, Nb, Cd, In, Sb, Pr, Sm, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Ta, Th, U, Hf, Ge, Te, Sc, V, Cr, Ni, Ga, W, Pb, Bi, Sn, As, Zn, Ti, Mn, Fe and Mg in samples from YL. The fluctuation of multi-element contents in TP was much bigger than that in YL. There were differences in multi-element contents between earth samples and cattle tissue and organ samples.(5) According to the principal that there were significant differences for multi-element contents of samples from different regions but no significant differences for multi-element contents of samples from different feeding periods, the referencing tracing indices for samples from TP, YL, NY were: Ge, Bi for muscle; In, Ta, Na and Cs for heart; Eu, Ga, Cr and Cs for liver; W for lung.