Editorial overview: The future of food biotechnology is microbial.

Multi-stable isotope ratio analysis (δ13C, δ15N, δ34S, δ2H, δ18O) of shrimp tail shell was first explored for the origin traceability and farming pattern authentication of shrimp products in Chinese market. Relative to shrimp tail meat, tail shell was found to be more excellent material for stable isotope analysis, it did not need of complicated degreasing pretreatment and can closely reflect the diet source and trophic level of shrimp during the latest growth cycle after molting. The study proved that δ15N and δ34S values of shrimp tail shell highly correlated with its feedstuff and habitat environment, and can be as the most important geographical indexes for origin traceability and authentication purpose. Multivariate modeling of 5 stable isotope ratios discriminates 320 shrimp samples of three farming patterns (wild-caught, coast-pond and freshwater farming) with accuracies close to 100%, 192 coast-pond farming shrimp samples from five countries with accuracies higher than 90%, respectively.