A Meat Speciation Survey of Selected Meat Products at Retail Level
- Project start date: 1 December 2010
- Project status: Completed
- Project type: Food safety
- Discipline: Food chain
- Principal researcher/s: Dr Fred Davison, Cork Public Analyst Laboratory
- Collaborator/s: Single supplier
Research objective
Regulatory authorities strive to promote honest and informative labelling to help consumers make informed choices. EU legislation requires meat to be labelled with the animal species from which it comes, and to quantify the meat ingredients. Mechanically recovered meat falls outside this definition and cannot count towards the meat content. Similarly, other parts of the carcass such as heart, liver, kidney, etc., must also be labelled separately, and the generic term "offal" is not permitted.
In order to check compliance with these labelling requirements, analytical DNA-based techniques are available to detect and quantify meat species and other meat ingredients in meat products.
The purpose of this project was to enhance the capacity of the Public Analyst system on the island of Ireland by facilitating the implementation of methods that could then be used to determine the authenticity of processed meat products. Method development concentrated on chicken burgers and sausages (cheaper brands). The Cork Public Analyst Laboratory has been designated the National Reference Laboratory for meat speciation by the Dept. of Health & Children.
Lab report available on request.
