Unravelling red deer (Cervus elaphus) meat adulteration in gourmet foods by quantitative real-time PCR

Red deer ( Cervus elaphus ) meat is highly regarded as an exclusive gourmet food due to its sensory quality, nutritional value and premium price, thus being susceptible to adulteration practices by its substitution with inferior meat species. This study proposes a novel real-time PCR method targeting the troponin I gene for detecting and quantifying red deer meat in processed food products. The assay showed acceptable performance parameters, achieving absolute and relative limits of quantification of 0.01 ng of DNA and 0.5% (w/w) of red deer meat in both raw and thermally processed pâté. The assay parameters, using raw and autoclaved reference mixtures, regarding PCR efficiency (89.3% and 100.0%, respectively), slope of the calibration curve (−3.6067 and −3.3224, respectively) and R 2 (0.9889 and 0.9893, respectively) highlight the high performance of the calibration models for the determination of red deer meat. The method was successfully validated using blind mixtures and applied to 46 commercial meat products from Poland, Portugal and Spain. Data suggested the adulteration of 48% of the samples by the total or partial substitution of red deer species and the suitability of the method for the routine testing of game meat products in quality control laboratories. • A novel nuclear species-specific marker targeting red deer was identified. • A real-time PCR assay was proposed to detect/quantify red deer meat in foods. • The assay achieved a LOQ of 0.5% (w/w) of red deer meat in raw and processed pâté. • The assay was successfully validated with raw and processed blind mixtures. • Application results suggest the adulteration of 48% of the analysed gourmet foods.