Detection of Commercial Fraud in Processed Meat Products Using Rapid Techniques

Meat adulteration with different species has become a considerable problem worldwide. It means that meat products contain undeclared meat species; so, the meat ingredients are not consistent with the label. It has direct impact on public health, religious faith, fair-trades and food safety standers. This study focused on species adulteration detection in meat products by applying accurate, slandered and fast techniques. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique and Raw Meat FlowThroughTM Test were performed as fast techniques. Thirty samples of beef meat products (10 each of hawawshi, sausage and burger) were subjected to analysis by PCR technique using specific primers sets for equine, chicken and pig species on samples' Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA). The adulteration rates with equine were 10%, 10% and 30% in hawawshi, sausage and beef burger samples, respectively. The adulteration rates with chicken were 80%, 50% and 100% in hawawshi, sausages and beef burger samples, respectively. While none of the examined samples was contaminated with pork. Results showed that 80% of all examined samples contained undeclared meat species. Out of the adulterated samples examined by PCR technique, eight samples were reanalyzed by the onsite Raw Meat FlowThroughTM Test which had taken only about 12 minutes to be performed. It was an on-site test for qualitative determination of species by visual inspection. The results confirmed those obtained by PCR technique by 100% in case of detection of poultry species. While in case of detection of adulteration by equine species, the FlowThroughTM Test gave negative results which indicated that it had the ability to detect horse specie only but could not detect other equine species as donkey and mule. This study suggests that these methods of detection can be applied by quality control laboratories and inspection services for fast and rapid determination of adulteration with poultry products in different meat products, but the FlowThroughTM Test is horse specific inside the equine species and this could be limitation to the test needs to improve it or beneficial points to differentiate between horse and donkey meat adulation combining with other methods.