Dr. Sandra Mourinha Chaves is the star of a new video now playing on The Scientists’ Channel, a trailblazing platform for leading scientists to share their expertise online, in a trusted and moderated way.
In a compelling interview with SelectScience Associate Editor Charlie Carter, WeNou’s founder, CEO and Head of R&D and Innovation highlights the growing demand for full traceability of food ingredients, discusses the challenges of food fraud detection, and reveals her favored technique for ensuring food label compliance.
“People today are much more critical and much more conscientious about what food safety and food integrity is than they were before,” she tells SelectScience. “Now, they want to know exactly what they are eating and understand if it is authentic and safe.”
Dr. Mourinha Chaves outlines how increasingly complex and global food chains can leave brands at risk of product adulteration throughout the manufacturing process.
“All the components that are in a food product should be clearly stated on the label. Taking this into account, we can define food fraud as any adulteration of a food product that makes it not in accordance with the label,” she explains.
Dr. Mourinha Chaves goes on to discuss the advantages of next-generation sequencing (NGS) as an untargeted method for testing the safety and quality of raw materials and processed food products, by enabling manufacturers to compare the list of ingredients the screening provides with what is on the label.
As well as food fraud testing and food analysis, The Scientists’ Channel features a range of scientists at the forefront of fields including cancer research, neuroscience, cannabis testing, mass spectrometry, imaging, and drug discovery — and includes a number of Nobel Prize winners.
Watch Sandra’s full video interview on The Scientists’ Channel here.