ABSTRACTSeveral species of land snails, includingHelix pomatiaandHelix lucorumare consumed as food products. The main source of commercial competition is an imported African snail,Achatina fulica. The only way to distinguish between these species has been morphologically. We hypothesized a reliable method for identifying canned snails could be based on using PCR‐RFLP analysis of mito‐chondrial DNA. The molecular weights of the amplified fragments were perfectly identical, regardless of low extraction (fresh snails or cooked and canned samples). The whole amplified products (16S rRNA and 12S rRNA) made it possible to check any fraudulent label and identify the three species using four restriction enzymes (RF