Quantitative detection of pork’s meat adulteration in processed poultry’s meat products by real time PCR

The need for reliable and sensitive methods for meat species identification in ground and comminuted meat products encompasses many issues including the fraudulent substitution of higher value species by cheaper meats species, the presence of undeclared species, the use of lower amounts of meat than the quantities declared on the product’s label and the substitution of meat by lower price vegetable proteins. This can represent an important economic fraud, but can also bring ethical, religious and even health repercussions. Several techniques are currently used for meat species identification in complex mixtures, including different protein-based methods such as HPLC, ELISA and electrophoretic techniques. Nevertheless, in processed meat products, these methods can be significantly less sensitive for the detection of specific species due to heat denaturation of proteins during industrial thermal processing.

Quantitative detection of pork’s meat adulteration in processed poultry’s meat products by real time PCR Conference Paper