Work on standardising methods in the field of animal species differentiation has been intensified in Germany in recent years, not least due to the horsemeat scandal in 2013. Even though there are now hardly ever any positive findings any more in examinations to detect horse elements in foods such as lasagne, animal species differentiation altogether ranks high in detecting adulteration of foods. This article therefore summarises the current status of analysis techniques in Germany with a focus on standardisation. It has been established by the working group "Biochemical and Molecular Biological Analytics" of the Lebensmittelchemische Gesellschaft (Food Chemistry Society within the German Chemical Society) with support of experts in the working group "Molecular biology techniques for differentiating plant and animal species" [ 64 of the German Food and Feed Code - LFGBI and the "Immunology and molecular biology" task force of the Food hygiene and food of animal origin working group (ALTS), both from Germany.