4. Conclusions
The different species-specific PCR assays used in this work proved to be highly specific and sensitive, reaching relative levels of detection of 0.01% for rabbit, cow and hare, and of 0.1% for red deer and pork meats. The proposed methodologies were successfully applied to 18 commercial samples of game meat Alheira sausages, allowing the detection of several inconsistencies with labelling, namely the absence of declared game species (red deer, hare and rabbit) in ten samples and the presence of undeclared cow species in half the analysed samples. The obtained results indicate the occurrence of misleading labelling of game meat Alheira sausages, suggesting the fraudulent substitution of game meats by cow meat for reduction of productions costs. This work highlights the need for future work to verify the compliance with labelling regarding other game meat species such as pheasant and partridge. Since Alheira is considered a very appreciated and traditional meat product that should be valorised and protected, inspection programmes should be effectively put in practice to assess authenticity and avoid the occurrence of mislabelling situations, enforcing regulation in the meat sector industry.