title: New sensitive high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for the detection of horse and pork in halal beef.
abstract: The accidental or fraudulent blending of meat from different species is a highly relevant aspect for food product quality control, especially for consumers with ethical concerns against species, such as horse or pork. In this study, we present a sensitive mass spectrometrical approach for the detection of trace contaminations of horse meat and pork and demonstrate the specificity of the identified biomarker peptides against chicken, lamb, and beef. Biomarker peptides were identified by a shotgun proteomic approach using tryptic digests of protein extracts and were verified by the analysis of 21 different meat samples from the 5 species included in this study. For the most sensitive peptides, a multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) method was developed that allows for the detection of 0.55% horse or pork in a beef matrix. To enhance sensitivity, we applied MRM(3) experiments and were able to detect down to 0.13% pork contamination in beef. To the best of our knowledge, we present here the first rapid and sensitive mass spectrometrical method for the detection of horse and pork by use of MRM and MRM(3).
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Chemistry, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster , Corrensstraße 45, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: von Bargen
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dojahn
authors.forename: Dietmar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Waidelich
authors.forename: Hans-Ulrich
authors.initials: HU
authors.lastname: Humpf
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brockmeyer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002645:Chickens; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis*; D006736:Horses; D008460:Meat / Q000032:analysis*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013552:Swine; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*