Stable isotope analysis of cattle tail hair: A potential tool for verifying the geographical origin of beef

Stable isotope ratios of cattle tail hair were investigated for their potential to classify beef from different regions in China. The delta C-13, delta N-15 and delta H-2 values in 167 cattle tail hair samples from 7 sampling subregions belonging to four beef production regions were measured by IRMS. Variance analysis and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) were employed for this purpose. The results showed that significant differences existed in delta C-13, delta N-15 and delta H-2 values of tail hair among different sampling regions. An overall correct classification rate of 82.6% and cross-validation rate of 79.6% were obtained for the four beef production regions based on delta C-13, delta N-15 and delta H-2 values, compared to 70.7% and 70.1% for the seven sampling subregions. These results demonstrated the potential usefulness of stable isotope analysis of cattle tail hair for establishing beef traceability database. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.