Application Guide - QIAxcel Advanced

120 QIAxcel Advanced Application Guide 10/2016 Identifying meat species using RFLP-PCR and the QIAxcel® Advanced system Renaud Cassier ADGENE Laboratoire, Thury Harcourt, France Food producers are obliged to monitor the manufacturing process for compliance with regulations on the quality and originof food products. Technology for rapid and accurate meat species authentication is crucial to the meat industry. This paperlooks at a sensitive method using restriction fragment length polymorphism PCR and the QIAxcel Advanced system. Introduction The requirement to put labels on food products providing consumers with information about the quality and origin of ingredients first appeared in the European Union in 1992. Directives on the legal protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs followed a few years later (1). To protect consumers’ interests, it was necessary to develop effective methods to authenticate the species composition of various food products, including meat. The prices for high quality meat are higher, so fraud does occur. Species identification requirements are also connected with the prohibition of sale of meat from certain protected animal species. Furthermore, certain cultures have religious restrictions on the meat composition of food. Finally, allergy sufferers need to know that they are getting meat that is safe for their consumption. Fortunately, it is now possible to identify individual food species using molecular biology techniques, some of which allow unequivocal species identification in both raw and processed food. Protein-based methods are not sensitive enough and cannot be used with processed meat because soluble muscle proteins are destroyed by processing. Therefore, most methods use PCR-based DNA amplification. PCR is characterized by high specificity and a relatively short analysis time. The most commonly used PCR methods for meat identification are: 1. PCR with species-specific primers that are designed based on cytochrome b mitochondrial DNA (2) has been used in multiplex PCR for the qualitative identification of 6 meat species: cattle, swine, chicken, sheep, goat, and horse (3). Multiplex PCR has also been used for the distinct and specific detection of chicken, turkey, duck, goose, pheasant, quail, and guinea fowl in raw meat and processed meat products (4). These experimental setups enabled authentication for correct food labeling and for compliance with ingredient composition covering the range of all common domestic poultry species available on the EU market.

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