Fast food set to make criminal sweat

The inventor of a new forensic fingerprinting technique claims criminals who eat processed foods are more likely to be discovered by police through their fingerprint sweat corroding metal.

Dr John Bond thinks that sweat marks left at crime scenes could be a vital clue for police

Dr John Bond, a researcher at the University of Leicester and scientific support officer at Northamptonshire Police, said processed food fans are more likely to leave tell-tale signs at a crime scene.

“On the basis that processed foods tend to be high in salt as a preservative, the body needs to excrete excess salt which comes out as sweat through the pores in our fingers. So the sweaty fingerprint impression you leave when you touch a surface will be high in salt if you eat a lot of processed foods - the higher the salt, the better the corrosion of the metal,” said Dr Bond.

Speaking before a conference on forensic science at the University of Leicester, Dr Bond revealed he was currently in early talks with colleagues to assess whether a sweat mark left at a crime scene could be analysed to reveal a ‘sweat profile’.

Bond has developed a method that enables scientists to ‘visualise fingerprints’ even after the print itself has been removed. He and colleagues conducted a study into the way fingerprints can corrode metal surfaces. The technique can enhance - after firing - a fingerprint that has been deposited on a small calibre metal cartridge case before it is fired.

Dr Bond said there was scope to take his research further and to look at the constituents of sweat itself in order to profile an individual: “This would be particularly helpful for terrorist type crimes where the nature of the incident would tend to obliterate forensic evidence. So a sweat mark on a piece of metal or bomb fragment that might be recovered from an incident might be able to provide a clue to the type of person who perpetrated the incident.”