Blood in Capsules: Multi-Technique Forensic Investigation of Suspicious Food Supplement

This study presents the results of a multi-technique forensic investigation of suspicious soft capsules seized by law enforcement during a criminal case. The unlabeled samples, sold as therapeutic and "regenerative" food supplements, were examined using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy with attenuated total reflection (ATR-FTIR), chemiluminescence, and brightfield/confocal microscopy. These complementary analytical approaches revealed that the capsules contained biological material of unknown origin, including blood-derived compounds, lipid constituents, and cellular structures. The findings indicate biological adulteration, possibly due to deliberate falsification or severe contamination. To place these results in a broader biomedical context, a scoping review of literature on blood- and tissue-derived materials used in biomedical and nutraceutical applications was conducted. This review underscores how such products are developed, promoted, and regulated, highlighting the potential health and biosafety risks associated with unregulated biologically themed supplements. Overall, this study demonstrates a transferable analytical workflow suitable for forensic laboratories and emphasizes the need for continued regulatory vigilance to protect public health. Given the evidentiary constraints typical of forensic casework-specifically, the small amount of seized material-the workflow was optimized to maximize information yield through minimally destructive, orthogonal, non-genetic screening methods, with LC-MS/MS reserved for final molecular confirmation. DNA typing was not performed because, after confirmatory analyses, the remaining material was insufficient for reliable genotyping.