Abstract:

The lack of effective methods for tracing organic foods brought about a lot of difficulties in inspecting and
governing the market of organic foods. Because the abundance of stable isotopes provides a natural fingerprint for foodproducing
environment (soil, water, air, fertilizer, feed, etc.), stable isotope technology has attracted much attention for its
application in tracing organic foods. This article summarizes an extensive review of the available literature regarding the
concept of stable isotope as well as the principle and applications of stable isotope technology in tracing organic plant foods
(vegetables, fruits and cereals) and organic animal foods (meat, milk and egg). In addition, the limitation and future research
directions of this technology in tracing organic foods are proposed in the present work.

Key words: stable isotope abundance, organic food, traceability, application