Applied Food Technologies (AFT) is engaged in the research, development and commercialization of products and services for the food industry. The firm specializes in seafood species identification and verification. The mislabeling of seafood is a hot topic in the national news not only because of customer dissatisfaction, but also because it constitutes economic fraud. The penalties for mislabeling, including unintentional mislabeling, may be quite severe, and may include fines and prison sentencing. The FDA is testing seafood for mislabeling and expanded their program to begin DNA testing of seafood at retail outlets at the end of 2011. This new FDA testing program involves the random sampling of all seafood including imported, domestic, fresh, frozen and processed seafood, both brand names and private label. Applied Food Technologies offers the only DNA-based species identification service for seafood that meets FDA and other regulatory agencies' standards. Unlike other service providers who use public databases, only AFT uses a validated reference database to insure the DNA sequence of the species identified is compared to that of a taxonomically confirmed reference standard. The firms DNA sequence database contains hundreds of fish and shellfish, based on taxonomical verification of commercially important species. The firm receives whole, intact specimens from suppliers around the world, with harvest data included with the specimens. The firm then catalogues and photo documents each specimen before sending it to multiple qualified taxonomists for taxonomical verification.
