DEVELOPMENT OF A RAPID AND ACCURATE METHOD FOR SEPARATION AND QUANTIFICATION OF MYOFIBRILLAR PROTEINS IN MEAT

The adulteration of meat and meat products with organ meats or alterna te species is a problem both for meat producers and consumers. Therefo re, a rapid method was developed and verified for the separation of pr oteins in fresh meat samples with the goal of identifying contaminatin g proteins. An extraction buffer system was optimized for protein reco very from meat samples and muscle proteins were separated on a size ex clusion high performance liquid chromatography column. The optimal pro tein extraction was obtained with a buffer of 0.4 M NaCl at pH 6.0. Th e effects of storage on the extract were carefully examined and it was determined that the muscle protein extract could be stored for 10-12 h prior to analysis. The relationship between peak area and injection concentration was found to be linear for myosin, myosin light chains a nd troponin. Mass recovery studies found that recovery was not signifi cantly different from 100% for beef or pork protein samples. Muscle sa mples from beef, veal, lamb, pork and turkey were compared and identif ying differences were found in all chromatograms. This method should p rovide a rapid method for detection of meat adulteration or for separa tion and purification of muscle proteins. (C) 1998 Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.