Applied Food Technologies
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Applied Food Technologies, Inc. (AFT) is a privately held corporation in Alachua, Florida that develops diagnostics needed in the seafood industry and runs fee-for-service species identification and verification programs.
Applied Food Technologies is primarily a research and development company focusing on fish species identification using DNA and environmental contaminant detection using gene expression in sentinel organisms. AFT also offers a fee-for-service business for seafood species identification.[1]
Technology
The DNA-based species identification diagnostics developed by AFT are used in-house and are also packaged in a kit format and sold to federal, state and private laboratories in the US, Europe and Asia. AFT has established an extensive library of taxonomically verified fish species and has developed DNA standards for these fish.
Criticism
AFT has been criticized as being "in industry's pocket" because AFT has been a loud voice in support of industry against media reports of mislabeling. AFT claims their internal testing has shown a much lower mislabeling rate than media reports. Although Applied Food Technologies has been included in numerous media reports concerning seafood species mislabeling and has been contacted to conduct testing for the media many times, AFT does not perform species identification testing for the media, which may be the cause of some criticism. AFT's mission statement includes offering a testing service to the seafood industry utilizing the "best available science" for the purpose of improving the industry to better serve the consumer. Typically the media outlets are unable to meet the chain of custody requirements within the "best available science" component, which is one of the principal reasons AFT does not offer testing to the media.
Applied Food Technologies offers fee-for-service business in several areas including fish species identification (also known as Fish ID), seafood net weight, and antibiotic residue testing, which are described in detail below.
Seafood mislabelling
Purpose
Even with the plethora of laws and regulations protecting consumers from mislabeling of seafood, enforcing compliance has been challenging because of the unique nature of seafood itself.[2] Unlike cattle, poultry, pork, crops, or other land-based food sources, the "farms" on which wild seafood is grown cannot easily be inspected. LeeAnn Applewhite realized in 2000 that modern technology could be used to solve this problem, was awarded several USDA SBIR research awards to develop the tools, and founded AFT to create a solution.[1]
Applied Food Technologies maintains an internal DNA database generated from a collection of economically important seafood specimens, which were taxonomically identified by third-party institutions, such as the Smithsonian and the Florida Museum.[1] These taxonomically validated specimens were sequenced in multiple regions to create a database of unique sequences capable of correctly identifying and distinguishing different seafood species."[1] Because only species identification testing that compares the sequence to a validated reference meets the current FDA guidelines for species identification, any lab not using a validated reference does not meet the FDA requirement.[3] AFT's Applewhite says, "Using a public database to determine a fish species is not very useful because the data is only as accurate as the least careful person submitting sequences, thus, the DNA sequences for common substitutes can also appear in the database under the wrong name."[4] FDA’s Stephanie Yao agrees, "Most other labs are pulling publicly available sequences off of the Internet to make their identifications, a practice FDA does not recommend for regulatory decisions."[4] FDA's Yao continued, AFT "often runs samples for importers whose shipments are being held by the FDA and the FDA has released some of those shipments based on AFT’s results."[4]
