and looks a lot fresher than it really is. not so long ago this kind of fraud would have been time consuming to detect but now with the d.n.a. fingerprint detecting adulterated food can take just a few seconds. that s our goal we want to implement a system across europe and establish a large database with many authentic food samples and genetic fingerprints that will make it easier to detect food fraud on the global market. until now the food counterfeiters have always been a step ahead but thanks to the new databases that could soon change. a d.n.a. database for food starts to uncover fraud committed on a massive scale it s a pressing topic because food adulteration has now apparently grown common all over the world as we heard from you on facebook. lititz here from chile writes that
more profitable than the drug trade. worldwide ten percent of foodstuffs tested are fake even oregon know it s sometimes adulterated with chopped pain leaves other bulking agents. in general food fraud is a form of fraud committed on the consumer s pocket book the consumer is paying for a quality product but getting something inferior. often involves expensive products like saffron for instance that s why the spice is regularly examined by chemists at the food safety authority in this lab in karlsruhe are they about five hundred samples of food from supermarkets online shops every day and often make astonishing discoveries. and this doesn t even look like san fran it looks like some sort of cellulose material paper that s probably
moment the algae are growing too slowly to the concentration once we finish cultivating is still too low that means producing and processing that micro algae is too costly and requires. the scientists are working to accelerate the growth of the algae using short high voltage pulses the single celled organisms have huge potential. because we could use micro algae to produce very interesting meat substitutes we were able to convert the algae proteins into a meat like substance that would facilitate a protein rich vegetable based diet and reduce meat consumption at the same time. but many types of algae can be eaten directly without any processing at all french chef perry cleary regularly harvests the wheat in the city of brest west the wheat has been a source of food for centuries. europe s coastlines alone are home to some five hundred different types of seaweed and algae thirteen have been approved for human
production soared. it became cheaper and cheaper. in the one nine hundred seventy s. first food like hamburgers were popular but the decade also saw the beginnings of the green movement driven by environmental protesters who wanted alternative lifestyles but that didn t affect levels of meat consumption even various disease and other meat scandals didn t spoil appetites but what about nowadays. in germany some five million people now eat no or very little meat and one percent of the population is even vegan despite that for years now and you will meet consumption in the country has topped around sixty kilos per capita per year. needed action worldwide has nearly quit truthful in the last fifty years and all of its products have a big carbon footprint cattle for. will produce huge amounts of greenhouse gases
a food source sixty five years ago after the second world war the world health organization found this a quarter of the global population suffered from protein deficiency so the focus was on algae with a high protein content like sparrow line and chlorella. would secure in the lab we kick start the initial propagation of the algae it all begins with a small single celled micro algae each day one cell divides into between two and sixteen new cells so would grows rapidly then we work to increase the volume of algae until we reach the point where we re ready to go into the greenhouse and start production for people. but not all algae growing fast enough to be used for industrial purposes that s something alexander muftis is aiming to change he works at the swiss federal institute of technology in zurich. in the at the