Affiliations 

  • 1 Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Centre (NanoCat), University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia; Centre for Research in Biotechnology for Agriculture (CEBAR), University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. Electronic address: eaqubali@gmail.com
  • 2 Nanotechnology and Catalysis Research Centre (NanoCat), University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia
Food Chem, 2015 Jun 15;177:214-24.
PMID: 25660879 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2014.12.098

Abstract

Food falsification has direct impact on public health, religious faith, fair-trades and wildlife. For the first time, here we described a multiplex polymerase chain reaction assay for the accurate identification of five meat species forbidden in Islamic foods in a single assay platform. Five pairs of species-specific primers were designed targeting mitochondrial ND5, ATPase 6, and cytochrome b genes to amplify 172, 163, 141, 129 and 108 bp DNA fragments from cat, dog, pig, monkey and rat meats, respectively. All PCR products were identified in gel-images and electrochromatograms obtained from Experion Bioanalyzer. Species-specificity checking against 15 important meat and fish and 5 plant species detected no cross-species amplification. Screening of target species in model and commercial meatballs reflected its application to detect target species in process foods. The assay was tested to detect 0.01-0.02 ng DNA under raw states and 1% suspected meats in meatball formulation.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.