Detection of the origin of animal species in kebab meat using mitochondrial DNA based -polymerase chain reaction (mtDNA-PCR)

Adulteration and incorrect labeling of meat products became a matter of great concerns of religious, economical, legal and medical aspects. Among meat products, kebab is considered one of the most favorable in Iraq, which makes it prone to adulteration. This study was carried out to evaluate the quality of kebab by detecting the origin of animal species meat in it; using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) based Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) under laboratory conditions. For this purpose kebab was prepared as per the standardized processing schedule using pure mutton and beef meat in ratio 80:20 and chicken meat in five ratios ;70:20:10, 65:20:15, 60:20:20,55:20:25 and 50:20:30, respectively. DNA was extracted successfully from pure species meat and from all mixed kebab above, then PCR was carried out using species-specific primers, to amplify mitochondrial cytochrome b (cyt b) gene. The results revealed specific amplified fragments with 133, 300 and 585 bp for pure chicken, beef and sheep, respectively, and in the mixed grilled samples, the detection limit of chicken was 10%, indicating that the cooking (grinding) and addition of non-meat ingredients showed no effect on the detection of meat species. The results of this study proved mtDNA-PCR to be effective and reliable for detecting the origin of animal species meat . This method of detection could be applied in quality control laboratories for detect adulteration in different kinds of traditional grilled kebab in Iraqi restaurants.