There is increasing society-wide demand for methods able to guarantee the quality of meat products and the meat production chain. Paper-based traceability offers an initial response but, as recent meat sector crises have shown, it is not fraudproof. It is therefore essential to develop additional instrument-based methods that use analyses run on the finished product to authenticate the key data channelled through the paper-based traceability system. This literature review aims to cover the main lines of research in this direction. Specific focus is given to the issues involved in authenticating the original livestock breed, geographic production zone, diet of the farmed animals and in tracing hazardous substances in animalderived food products.