Detection methods for animal species in meat products

Species substitution in meat products is a common problem reported worldwide. Therefore, highly sensitive and efficient techniques are needed to detect meat species. A study published in the Journal of Food Science examines a method based on real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect 10 animal species in meat products. The method combines species-specific and universal (used here as internal positive control) primers, and applies melt curve analysis for amplicon checking.

The researchers selected seven meat species used for human consumption in Brazil (beef, pork, chicken, lamb, goat, turkey, and buffalo) and three meats possibly used in fraud (horse, dog, and cat). For method validation, the researchers prepared 45 experimental reference meat mixtures with tissues from two species in proportion of 50:50 or 99:1 (w/w). One mixture was prepared with meats from all species (10% [w/w] each). In addition, the performance of the method was also evaluated on 14 meat products (hamburgers, sausages, salami, smoked chicken breast, Canadian bacon, beef meat balls, and meat nuggets.

The researchers evaluated the method accuracy on 46 experimental meat mixtures and all species were correctly identified in all cases, at 1% test sensitivity. Analysis of 14 commercial meat products revealed that six of 14 samples had nondeclared bovine and/or chicken material. They performed an interlaboratory comparison using the reference meat mixtures and commercial samples, achieving 100% of reproducibility. The researchers concluded that “the method proposed here can play an important role in controlling the origin of meat products, ensuring their quality and safety for the entire food industry—producers to consumers.”

Abstract