| MEAT AUTHENTICITY VERIFICATION - BY DNA ANALYSIS |
| Speciation of meats used for adulteration |
| As a result of our on-going research programme Premier Analytical Services can now offer a range of diagnostic PCR tests to detect the adulteration of meat based ingredients and meat products with undeclared or cheaper meats. DNA is extracted from the sample and subjected to intensive purification prior to 'real-time' PCR to detect the major meat species (beef, lamb, pork, chicken and turkey) that may be present. The financial aspect of fraudulent activity is clear, as is the need to maintain reputation and quality by both manufacturer and retailer. Surveillance to detect adventitious or fraudulent contamination in meat products serves to reassure all parties within the food supply chain. This is particularly true of ethnic groups whose religious beliefs forbid the consumption of particular species and who require assurance that they are purchasing food that conforms to their beliefs. |
| Detection of meat as a vegetarian food contaminant |
| As part of the suite of analyses, Premier Analytical Services can also offer a 'universal' meat detection assay, also based upon DNA and which is ideally suited to the detection of meat contamination in vegetarian products. Meat is readily detected above the 0.05% level even in the presence of both milk and cheese, ingredients that traditionally render analyses ineffective. Due diligence by manufactures and retailers to detect such adventitious or fraudulent contamination in these products serves to reassure vegetarians and ethnic groups whose religious beliefs forbid consumption of particular species that they are indeed purchasing food of true vegetarian origin. |
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MEAT AUTHENTICITY VERIFICATION - BY IMMUNOLOGICAL METHODS |
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Adulterants that may be found in meat might include proteins from non-meat sources such a soya protein, whey proteins for example casein or wheat protein like gluten. These can all be detected, as meat adulterants, by Premier Analytical Services using ELISA techniques. |
