ABSTRACT. The increasingly abundant food fraud cases have brought food authenticity and 1 safety into major focus. In this study, we present a fast and effective way to identify meat 2 products using rapid evaporative ionization mass spectrometry (REIMS). The experimental setup 3 was demonstrated to be able to record a mass spectrometric profile of meat specimens in a time 4 frame of less than 5 seconds. A multivariate statistical algorithm was developed and successfully 5 tested for the identification of animal tissue with different anatomical origin, breed and species 6 with 100% accuracy at species and 97% accuracy at breed level. Detection of the presence of 7 meat originating from a different species (horse, cattle, and venison) has also been demonstrated 8 with high accuracy using mixed patties with a 5% detection limit. REIMS technology was found 9to be a promising tool in food safety applications providing a reliable and simple method for the 10 rapid characterization of food products. 11 12