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Detection of horse DNA in food and feedstuffs using a polymerase chain reaction assay
Author(s) -
Martín Irene,
García Teresa,
Fajardo Violeta,
Rojas María,
Hernández Pablo E,
González Isabel,
Martín Rosario
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.3576
Subject(s) - polymerase chain reaction , horse , dna , biology , mitochondrial dna , food science , real time polymerase chain reaction , ribosomal rna , primer (cosmetics) , gene , chemistry , biochemistry , paleontology , organic chemistry
Abstract BACKGROUND: Development of accurate methods for rapid identification of animal materials in food and feedstuffs is essential to protect consumers and also to enforce feed bans. The aim of this study was to develop a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for the specific detection of horse DNA in food and feedstuffs. RESULTS: The primers designed amplified a horse‐specific fragment of 114 bp of the mitochondrial 12S ribosomal RNA gene. The specificity of the primers was verified by PCR analysis of DNA from 32 non‐target species including mammals, birds, fish and plant species. The PCR assay developed allowed the detection of raw and heated horse tissues in muscle/oats mixtures even when the concentration of horse‐derived materials was reduced to 1 g kg −1 . CONCLUSION: The performance of the method was not affected by prolonged heat treatment (up to 133 °C for 20 min at 300 kPa), and consequently it could be very useful in verifying the origin of raw materials in food and feedstuffs submitted to denaturing technologies, for which other methods cannot be applied. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry