Two real-time PCR based method for the detection of fish in food, commercially available kit and an in-house method, were evaluated in this study (Table 2). The specificity of both methods was compared with the same samples. In the present study, the specificity of the method was verified in-house against the commercial kit. The commercial kit
experienced cross-reactivity with some species of bivalves, cephalopods, crustacean, meats and vegetables (Table 1). This demonstrates the importance of realising validation more widely when a commercial kit is chosen since the analysis of the manufacturer is not enough. Sensitivity and specificity are the main criteria when a kit is evaluated, but other considerations important in this task are handling, time-consuming, cost, applicability or simplicity. The inhouse real-time PCR required more handling, but was cheaper than
the commercial kit. Data from the in-house method were obtained
in 43 min while the commercial kit took 75 min (both used the ViiA
7 Real-Time PCR System).
In summary, the results suggest that the in-house assay was
more sensitive and specific, and was cheaper and less time-consuming
than the commercial kit tested.