Development of a rapid and accurate method for separation and quantification of myofibrillar proteins in meat

Abstract

The adulteration of meat and meat products with organ meats or alternate species is a problem both for meat producers and consumers. Therefore, a rapid method was developed and verified for the separation of proteins in fresh meat samples with the goal of identifying contaminating proteins. An extraction buffer system was optimized for protein recovery from meat samples and muscle proteins were separated on a size exclusion high performance liquid chromatography column. The optimal protein extraction was obtained with a buffer of 0.4 M NaCl at pH 6.0. The effects of storage on the extract were carefully examined and it was determined that the muscle protein extract could be stored for 10–12 h prior to analysis. The relationship between peak area and injection concentration was found to be linear for myosin, myosin light chains and troponin. Mass recovery studies found that recovery was not significantly different from 100% for beef or pork protein samples. Muscle samples from beef, veal, lamb, pork and turkey were compared and identifying differences were found in all chromatograms. This method should provide a rapid method for detection of meat adulteration or for separation and purification of muscle proteins.