Are these food products fraudulent? Rapid and novel triplex-direct PCR assay for meat identification
1. Introduction
With increasing consumption of ready-made food and contin- uous expansion of the food industry, identification of food ingredient is required by law in many countries [1]. This is to protect consumers from undue profit makers, for example, using materials that are sub-standard, breach religious laws, or as substitutes for more expensive ones. Constant developments of technique for the identification of meat and meat products are being made. At present, PCR techniques are common as they have high sensitivity and specificity [2].
Direct PCR is popular in microbiology and forensic DNA analysis. This method is rapid, economical and has reduced contamination rate because DNA extraction is omitted. Moreover, DNA extraction has low yield (16–30% of total DNA) [3,4]. Consequently, multiplex direct PCR to identify three types of meat – pork, mutton and chicken – was developed and validated in this study. This is the first multiplex direct PCR for meat identification.
1. Introduction
Pathogenic bacteria and their toxins can occasionally be used as a biological weapon in food poisoning as a terrorist act. Intentional or unintentional food poisoning due to pathogenic bacteria have results in illnesses and deaths [1], highlighting the concern to public health. Microbial forensic science can therefore play an important role in bacterial species identification from relevant evidence to investigate these bio-crimes for food safety standards improvement and legislation.
The gold standard for bacterial species identification depends on bacterial cultivation combined with biochemical tests. The method is time-consuming (typically takes four to seven days), labor-intensive, expensive, and requires specialist knowledge. A molecular approach is used as an alternative to overcome these obstacles; it is also more reliable and sensitive. According to World