Species identification in heat processed meat products

In this work, species-specific PCR techniques were developed and optimized to identify pork, poultry and cow species in Frankfurt sausages. For pork and poultry, which are the most frequently used meats in Frankfurters, reference binary samples (pork in poultry and poultry in pork) were prepared in the laboratory. In both cases, the established conditions allowed the detection of levels as low as 0.1% of added pork/poultry meat. Real-time PCR assays based on the measurement of fluorescence increments using SYBR Green I dye were used for quantitative purposes. Several samples were acquired in the retail market and tested for their label compliance. Results showed 3 mislabelled samples regarding cow species and 2 for poultry species. Although the qualitative results showed the undeclared presence of pork meat in 2 poultry sausages samples, quantitative results showed levels < 0.1%. These low levels are probably not related to fraudulent practices, but possibly due to cross-contaminations during industrial processing.

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