College of Bioscience and Bioengineering, Jiangxi Agricultural University, 1101 Zhimin Road, Nanchang 330045, China; Department of Biology, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada; School of Nutrition Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, 25 University Private Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, Canada; Bioengineering and Technological Research Centre for Edible and Medicinal Fungi, Jiangxi Agricultural University, 1101 Zhimin Road, Nanchang 330045, China; Jiangxi Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Fungal Resources, Jiangxi Agricultural University, 1101 Zhimin Road, Nanchang 330045, China; Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Minufiya University, 32511 Shibin El Kom, Minufiya Government, Egypt.
Food Res Int. 2021 Dec;150(Pt B):110806. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2021.110806. Epub 2021 Nov 8.
Edible bird's nest (EBN) swiftlet existed naturally 48,000 years ago in caves as their natural dwellings. Nowadays, edible bird's nest has become a very important industry due to its high nutritional, medicinal and economic value. Additionally, edible bird's nest has a long quality guarantee period. Obviously, the nutritional components and medicinal functions vary depending on geographical origins. Recently, the global demand for edible bird's nest has markedly increased, accompanied by the increasing attention of all key players of the global food trade system, i.e., producers, consumers, traders and the authorities to obtain safe and high-quality edible bird's nest. Hence, this target can be accomplished via the enforcement of an efficient and universal geo-tracing technique. Current methods of the geo-tracking of edible bird's nest, i.e., automation, physical and analytical techniques have several limitations and all of them fail to discriminate different quality grades of edible bird's nest. Meanwhile, in many studies and applications, polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) has proven to be a "cutting edge" technique for greatly enhance food traceability from field to fork through its ability in distinguishing the food products in terms of their quality and safety. This article provides an overview of (1) edible bird's nest as a multiuse strategic food product, (2) quality issues associated with edible bird's nest including implications that the site of acquisition of the edible bird's nest has food safety implications, (3) current regulations and geo-tracking approaches to ensure the safety and quality of edible bird's nest with the special focus on polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis technique as a vigorous and universal geo-tracing tool to be suggested for edible bird's nest geo-traceability.
燕窝（EBN）早在 48000 年前就作为天然居所而自然存在于洞穴中。如今，燕窝因其具有很高的营养价值、药用价值和经济价值而成为一项非常重要的产业。此外，燕窝具有很长的保质期。显然，其营养价值和药用功能因产地而异。最近，全球对燕窝的需求显著增加，这引起了全球食品贸易体系的所有主要参与者（即生产者、消费者、贸易商和当局）的关注，他们希望获得安全且高质量的燕窝。因此，可以通过执行高效且通用的地理追踪技术来实现这一目标。当前燕窝地理追踪的方法，即自动化、物理和分析技术，存在一些局限性，并且都无法区分燕窝的不同质量等级。同时，在许多研究和应用中，聚合酶链反应-变性梯度凝胶电泳（PCR-DGGE）已被证明是一种“前沿”技术，通过其区分食品产品质量和安全性的能力，从田间到餐桌大大提高了食品可追溯性。本文概述了（1）燕窝作为一种多用战略食品产品，（2）与燕窝质量相关的问题，包括获取燕窝的地点对食品安全的影响，（3）当前确保燕窝安全和质量的法规和地理追踪方法，特别关注聚合酶链反应-变性梯度凝胶电泳技术作为一种强大且通用的地理追踪工具，建议用于燕窝的地理追踪。
