Verification Analyses for the Detection of Bovine and Porcine Species in Foods Containing Animal Gelatin with Q-Exactive ORBITRAP Device

Abstract

Animal-derived gelatins are widely used in a variety of foods such as biscuits, chewing gum, chocolate, jelly beans, and confectionery, as well as medicines and food supplements. However, high temperatures, chemical treatments, and other methods used in the production process can damage the animal genes in the gelatin. This makes it difficult to extract DNA from gelatin-containing products and prevents the detection of animal species by technological methods such as real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). This problem clearly demonstrates the need for new and more advanced technologies for species identification. In such cases where traditional methods are inadequate, more sensitive and reliable technological approaches should be developed. In this study, verification studies were conducted for species detection on 124 animal gelatin–containing products that could not be identified by RT-PCR due to DNA degradation. This was achieved using Quadrupole (Q) Exactive Orbitrap, a new generation molecular technology. As a result of the study, 62 samples containing bovine gelatin were spiked with 1% pork gelatin, and 62 of the samples were found to be positive for porks by Orbitrap. Similarly, 62 of the 62 samples containing pork gelatin spiked with 1% bovine gelatin were detected as bovine positive by Orbitrap. In this context, successful results were obtained in the detection of beef and pork species with LOD 1% level. The developed method was verified in terms of sensitivity, accuracy, and precision. As a result, limits of quantification (LOQ) were ranging from 10.0 µg/L. As a result, the limit of detection (LOD) was found to be 1%. Furthermore, this method was successfully applied to positive and negative controls.

Graphical Abstract