Authentication of Processed Meat Products

Food fraud is an age old practice done primarily for monetary gains. Falsified food directly influences wildlife, fair trade and public well-being. It is also a major concern for practicing religious people. A rampant increase is witnessed in such practices now-a-days, which include illegal slaughter of cows, meat adulteration and substitution. Therefore, meat species authentication in processed meat products is a significant subject, attention to which would contribute to fair trade and would enable consumers to make the informed choices. Many analytical methods have been developed for meat authentication which include the traditional protein based methods but the denaturation of proteins under extreme thermal treatments make such techniques unsuitable for meat authentication especially in processed foods. Also, electrophoretic, chromatographic and immunological approaches based on protein fractions are typically ineffective in distinguishing closely related meat species in processed meat products. Unlike proteins and peptides, DNA molecules possess more stability against various harsh chemical and thermal treatments making DNA-based methods more favourable for meat species detection in processed meat samples.