β-casein gene polymorphism permits identification of bovine milk mixed with bubaline milk in mozzarella cheese

Mozzarella cheese is traditionally prepared from bubaline (Bubalus bubalis) milk, but product adulteration occurs mainly by addition of or full substitution by bovine milk. The aim of this study was to show the usefulnes of molecular markers to identify the admixture of bovine milk to bubaline milk during the manufacturing process of mozzarella cheese. Samples of mozzarella cheese were produced by adding seven different concentrations of bovine milk: 0%, 1%, 2%, 5%, 8%, 12% and 100%. DNA extracted from somatic cells found in cheese were submitted to PCR-RFLP analysis of casein genes: α-s1-CN - CSN1S1 that encompasses 954 bp from exon VII to intron IX (AluI and HinfI), β-CN - CSN2 including 495 bp of exon VII (Hae III and HinfI), and κ-CN - CSN3, encompassing 373 bp of exon IV (AluI and HindIII). Our results indicate that Hae III-RFLP of CSN2exon VII can be used as a molecular marker to detect the presence of bovine milk in mozzarella cheese. Copyright © 2008, Sociedade Brasileira de Genética.

Fingerprint Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) analysis in Goat’s Milk and Halloumi Cheese as Marker for Authentication of Region of Origin

Goats’ milk is responsible for unique traditional products such as Halloumi cheese. The characteristics of Halloumi depend on the original features of the milk and on the conditions under which the milk has been produced such as feeding regime of the animals or region of production. Using a range of milk (33) and Halloumi (33) samples collected over a year from three different locations in Cyprus (A, Anogyra; K, Kofinou; P, Paphos), the potential for fingerprint VOC analysis as marker to authenticate Halloumi was investigated. This unique set up consists of an in-injector thermo desorption (VOCtrap needle) and a chromatofocusing system based on mass spectrometry (VOCscanner). The mass spectra of all the analyzed samples are treated by multivariate analysis (Principle component analysis and Discriminant functions analysis). Results showed that the highland area of product (P) is clearly identified in milks produced (discriminant score 67%). It is interesting to note that the higher similitude found on milks from regions “A” and “K” (with P being distractive; discriminant score 80%) are not ‘carried over’ on the cheeses (higher similitude between regions “A” and “P”, with “K” distinctive). Data have been broken down into three seasons. Similarly, the seasonality differences observed in different milks are not necessarily reported on the produced cheeses. This is expected due to the different VOC signatures developed in cheeses as part of the numerous biochemical changes during its elaboration compared to milk. VOC however it is an additional analytical tool that can aid in the identification of region origin in dairy products.

Major and trace elements in milk and Halloumi cheese as markers for authentication of goat feeding regimes and geographical origin

Sixty samples of milk, Halloumi cheese and local grazing plants (i.e. shrubs) were collected over a year from dairy farms located on three different locations of Cyprus. Major and trace elements were quantified using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). Milk and Halloumi cheese produced in different geographical locations presented significant differences in the concentration of some of the elements analysed. Principal component analysis showed grouping of samples according to the region of production for both milk and cheese samples. These findings show that the assay of elements can provide useful fingerprints for the characterisation of dairy products.

A broadcast authentication and integrity augmentation for trusted differential GPS in marine navigation

In this paper we propose an efficient authentication and integrity scheme to support DGPS corrections using the RTCM protocol, such that the identified vulnerabilities in DGPS are mitigated. The proposed scheme is based on the TESLA broadcast protocol with modifications that make it suitable for the bandwidth and processor constrained environment of marine DGPS.

Soft-biometrics : unconstrained authentication in a surveillance environment

Soft biometrics are characteristics that can be used to describe, but not uniquely identify an individual. These include traits such as height, weight, gender, hair, skin and clothing colour. Unlike traditional biometrics (i.e. face, voice) which require cooperation from the subject, soft biometrics can be acquired by surveillance cameras at range without any user cooperation. Whilst these traits cannot provide robust authentication, they can be used to provide coarse authentication or identification at long range, locate a subject who has been previously seen or who matches a description, as well as aid in object tracking. In this paper we propose three part (head, torso, legs) height and colour soft biometric models, and demonstrate their verification performance on a subset of the PETS 2006 database. We show that these models, whilst not as accurate as traditional biometrics, can still achieve acceptable rates of accuracy in situations where traditional biometrics cannot be applied.

A two-step mutual authentication protocol based on randomized hash-lock for small RFID networks

RFID has been widely used in today's commercial and supply chain industry, due to the significant advantages it offers and the relatively low production cost. However, this ubiquitous technology has inherent problems in security and privacy. This calls for the development of simple, efficient and cost effective mechanisms against a variety of security threats. This paper proposes a two-step authentication protocol based on the randomized hash-lock scheme proposed by S. Weis in 2003. By introducing additional measures during the authentication process, this new protocol proves to enhance the security of RFID significantly, and protects the passive tags from almost all major attacks, including tag cloning, replay, full-disclosure, tracking, and eavesdropping. Furthermore, no significant changes to the tags is required to implement this protocol, and the low complexity level of the randomized hash-lock algorithm is retained.