To check if the food is still fit for eating, Filipinos usually do it the traditional way: smell it. But though one’s nose has been trained to smell spoiled food, there is a more foolproof way of ascertaining the safety of food. This more precise way of determining food fit to eat is done through the science of genomics, more specifically through a process called DNA analysis.
DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the basic molecule that carries the genetic information of all living organisms. It is not affected by high temperature and its structure remains in all tissues of a person, animal, or plant, making it an excellent material to identify organisms, even in food products. By analyzing DNAs in a certain food product, foreign species, or those organisms present in spoiled food, can be easily detected.
Thus, DNA analysis facilitates foreign species detection in food products which traditional food analysis may not notice.
