Food authenticity is a major concern that is closely linked to public health and safety in the period in which the long food supply chain is the norm. One of the key problems facing customers in meat markets is the detection of non-halal meat. While several studies have been carried out to identify biomarkers for adulterated meats such as lard, still these studies are at an early stage, and there is no authenticated biomarker available which can produce specific identification as a result. The purpose of this research is to utilize the technique of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to analyze pig, cow, lamb, and chicken fat to identify potential biomarkers for the identification of lard. FTIR studies have shown that chicken and lard fat have particular peaks relative to lamb and beef fats at wavenumbers 1600, 1750, 2750 and 2920 cm�1. Furthermore, PCA shows promising clustering and correlation between the species which can lead to development of a model for successful adulteration detection. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.