Authenticity Determination of Meat and Meat Products on the Protein and DNA Basis

Abstract

Adulterated food can be defined as food incompatible with the declaration of the seller. In the case of meat and meat articles, adulterations refer not only to the replacement of ingredients but also to inappropriate information concerning the origin of raw materials. Methods aiming at investigating meat and meat product authenticity may be based either on the analysis of protein composition or on the analysis of nucleic acids. At the present time, meat and meat product authenticity investigations based on protein analysis employ electrophoretic, enzymic, and chromatographic methods, sometimes supported by the mass spectrometry technique. On the other hand, species identification is often based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Biochips present a promising technology.