Innovation Corner - Exhibition at the Technical Museum Vienna

On 2.10.2023, the Innovation Corner AGRIFOOD in the foyer of the Vienna Technical Museum with a contribution from the COMET Centre FFoQSI in collaboration with the Institute for Analytical Chemistry at BOKU was ceremoniously opened. The exhibition “Knowledge paths from plate to pond”, fish origins through ear stone analysis using analytical chemistry, can be seen for 4 months.

The exhibition “Agrifood. Innovations for the Agriculture and Nutrition of Tomorrow” in the “Innovation Corner” of the Technical Museum Vienna was ceremoniously opened by Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner on Monday, October 2nd, 2023.

The contribution “Knowledge paths from plate to pond”, fish origins through ear stone analysis using analytical chemistry, hereby was created in a collaboration between FFoQSI and the Institute for Analytical Chemistry and deals with the detection of food fraud, in particular with the authentication of fish products from aquaculture. Mainly responsible for the conception and implementation of the exhibition contribution were DI Dr. Andreas Zitek, MSc (FFoQSI and Institute for Analytical Chemistry) and Dr. Lisa Fischer (Institute for Analytical Chemistry), supported by Mag. Kristina Pollack (FFoQSI) and the exhibition team of the Technical Museum.

Generally, global food fraud causes economic damage of up to 30 billion euros per year. In order to make the indication of origin on fish products from aquaculture verifiable, the Institute of Analytical Chemistry as part of FFoQSI has developed an analytical procedure that can trace fish products from the plate back to the pond. For example, the fish's ear stones, which are made up of rings mainly made of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) containing time-resolved environmental chemical information, are analyzed using Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry. This is the only method allowing for the traceability of aquaculture fish according to the indication of origin required under EU Regulation No. 1379/2013. This regulation defines that for fish from aquaculture, the country of origin in which the fish was located for more than half of its life or where it attained more than half of its final weight must be indicated. Only structures that grow in a time-resolved manner, such as ear stones, but also to a limited extent scales and fin rays, allow this type of determination of the length of stay of a fish in a habitat such as a fish farm.

Videolink: https://vimeo.com/872834199/ddae0054c8 
Link to the exhibition site: https://www.technischesmuseum.at/presse/innovation_corner_agrifood
Link to FFoQSI news site: https://www.ffoqsi.at/index.php/de-de/news/2023-10-04-innovation-corner-2023-de

11.10.2023