Molecular detection of adulteration in chicken products based on mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene

Abstract

The aim of this study is to detect the fraudulent in chicken products constitutes in order to protect consumers in Saudi Arabia from illegal substitutions. Two different approaches were used in this study, direct sequencing of specific fragments of amplified mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene in addition to species-specific PCR primers for confirmation of the obtained Blast search results. The results showed that all processed chicken products were identified as chicken (Gallus gallus) by 90–98% homology depending on obtained sequence quality. Samples labeled with chicken luncheon (samples tested in this study) were identified as turkey meat (Meleagris gallopavo) by 98% homology, suggesting adulteration with inedible parts of turkey in chicken luncheon ingredients. The results showed also that not only chicken luncheon was mixed with inedible parts of turkey but also all chicken products tested in this study (chicken balls, chicken burger, chicken sausage and chicken mined meat) contained this turkey meat. Applying methods used in this study could be useful for accurate and rapid identification of commercial processed meat.

• Chicken
• mitochondrial DNA
• processed products
• sequence analysis
• specific 12S rRNA fragments

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, with thanks for DSR technical and financial support.

Declaration of interest

This project was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR), King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, under grant No. (130-001-D1433).The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.