Applicability of species-specific polymerase chain reaction for fraud identification in raw ground meat commercially sold in Iran

Abstract Identifying of the species origin in meat and meat products is important for preventing adulteration and protecting consumers in terms of health and religious convictions. Species-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been known as a suitable method for identifying meat species; however, there is little information on applicability of this method for the detection of fraudulent actions in different food products. This study aimed to evaluate a species-specific PCR assay for the detecting of chicken and donkey meats as adulterants in raw ground meats. Specificity of the primer sets was tested against the target species. The method was applied to the binary meat mixtures of the target species with the detection limits ranged from 0.1% to 10% (w/w). Also, 91 ground beef samples and 53 mixtures of ground beef and lamb samples were collected from local butcheries and tested in order to evaluate the applicability of this method. The oligonucleotide primers amplified mitochondrial DNA sequences and revealed PCR products with expected sizes of 300, 225, 183 and 145 base pair from cattle, sheep, chicken and donkey respectively. PCR assay performed on the experimental meat mixtures showed the detection limit of 0.1% for all primer sets. Results demonstrated that 47.2% and 0.7% of all the samples contained chicken and donkey meats respectively. This method of detection can be applied by quality control laboratories and inspection services to determine adulteration in raw ground meat under certain circumstances.