I think this is so interesting. Really out of the box thinking.

I actually brought the idea up with my boyfriend who’s a biochemist by PhD. His main concern was that doing metabolite testing on meat products would make the food extremely expensive. I guess these biochemical methods don’t run cheap.

I also wonder if we found “good” markers in animals living under high quality conditions, how easy would it be to fake these markers? For example, if animals outdoors in the sun had healthier markers would it be possible for some processors to get the same markers by investing in bright lighting inside their facility? Or find some other way to fake the “good” status.

That being said, there’s already problems with fraud in the food industry, so it wouldn’t be anything new. If people really want to cheat the system, they can usually find a way.

Thank you so much for the intriguing comment. I love thinking about stuff like this.