One of the most adulterated products in the world is meat, due to the rising price of some of its species and increased consumption. The basis of the legal regulations introducing the obligation to test meat and meat products were health, religious and commercial reasons.
The most common methods of counterfeiting meat and meat products used by food producers include:
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- replacing meat with another, cheaper (e.g. in highly processed products, homogenized),
- incorrect labeling (incorrect information on species meat, method of production or animal husbandry),
- addition of agents that improve the appearance (the presence of nitrites and nitrates to give the desired color of the meat or hydrogen peroxide in order to whiten the offal),
- falsification of freshness (defrosted meat sold fresh).
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Counterfeiting of food products changes their composition and properties, which negatively affects the final quality of the finished product and its safety (addition of prohibited substances). Therefore, it is important to use appropriate and reliable methods aimed at analyzing a given sample in terms of the type of meat sought.
FoodSector offers you tests for:
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- identification of the origin / species of meat (enzyme immunoassay ELISA, PCR method – molecular technique using the polymerase chain reaction, this method allows for the estimation of adulteration of a given product with undesirable meat species at the level of <0.1%)
- identification and confirmation of the presence of pharmaceutical preparations, plant protection products, pesticides and meat steroids (HPLC method).
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As part of the identification of meat species, the following methods are also used:
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- organoleptic,
- serological,
- electrophoretic.
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