Tokyo

Japan is set to crack down on imitations of its local delicacies — from seaweed to crab — by using genetic testing to check the origins of foodstuffs.

Many Japanese products use their place of origin as a sign of quality, in the same way that real champagne must come from the region in France of the same name. But imitations often end up on the market.

Government officials in Hokkaido, Japan's largest food-supplying region, say that tofu, soba noodles, beans and other products are sometimes sold under a fake Hokkaido label. But in April, the local government will start to protect the region's economic interests by implementing spot checks of products in supermarkets across the country.

The idea of genetic testing of food is not new. The Kyoto-based company Takara Shuzo, for example, has developed a genetic test that can distinguish famous Koshihikari rice — from the Niigata region — from cheaper varieties. It sells kits to retailers so they can check the authenticity of their products.

A similar test has been developed by researchers at the National Institute of Vegetable and Tea Science in Mie Prefecture to allow them to distinguish genuine Tochiotome strawberries from Korean fruit that illicitly bears the Tochiotome label.

And Japan's customs agents last year started using genetic tests on imports of tatami mats — a traditional Japanese floor covering. This should ensure that mats described as Hinomidori are made from the high-quality reeds developed by researchers at the Kumamoto Prefecture Agricultural Research Center.

The challenge in store for Hokkaido will be to identify genetic markers unique to all the products they wish to test. Finding markers for Hokkaido's crab, for example, will be quite a challenge, says Hideyuki Imai, who studies crab genetics at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa. If crabs from different regions interbreed with each other, says Imai, it may prove to be impossible.

All this rigorous genetic testing may force up the price of these items, notes Yoshito Tsuya, an agricultural economist at Utsunomiya University, just north of Tokyo. But he thinks that customers will be prepared to pay more to make sure they get the real thing.