Detection of Authentication of Meat Products by Low Cost Closed-tube Molecular Methods

Nowadays adulteration of meat products, especially of ground meat products which form an easy case scenario for implementing adulteration practices due to their structure and texture, emerges a critical issue of raised concern threatening fair trade, food quality and consumers’ health and protection. Food authentication testing is the tool to address this kind of fraud. There is several analytical methodologies applied for meat authentication targeting at different biomarkers and using a variety of analytical techniques. However, the applied methodologies should exhibit suitable performance characteristics such as reliability, sensitivity, reproducibility and availability in order to be fit for purpose. During the last 20 years, amplification tests have emerged as an important diagnostic tool, not only for clinical applications, but also for food quality and safety. It was urgent to develop molecular techniques fast and sensitive. The introduction of new DNA technologies has facilitated the ease and accuracy of of methods for fraud detection. The closed-tube methods of Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and Gold Nanoparticles linked with oligonucleotides used as molecular probes are well known for their robust and highly sensitive and specific amplification of target DNA. Moreover, these techniques are rapid, low-cost diagnostics and available on site. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the molecular methods developed that can be applied for investigating ground meat adul-teration and focuses on the advantages of the rapid closed tube methods that can yield color results interpreted with the naked eye. The application of such time- and cost-effective molecular tools in the food market is proposed to provide a first-level filter for meat adulterated products, serving as a complementary tool to the more in-depth -omics approach.