Animal Species Determination in Sausages using an SDS-PAGE technique

In this study, the possibility of animal species determination of meat used in heat-treated sausages was demonstrated. For this purpose, sausages made from pure beef, pork and horsemeat and mixtures of two or three of these s pecies were heated at 75 degrees C for 15 min. In pherograms of sausages ma de from pure beef, pork and horsemeat, differences that distinguish these t hree species could easily be determined by their staining densities and pos itions. It was determined in pherograms of mixtures that were prepared by a dding horsemeat and pork to beef in defined rates that protein bands charac teristic for beef kept their intensity while the intensities of the bands t ypical for pork and horsemeat had decreased. In pherograms of sausages that contained a large amount of horsemeat (50 and 40 %), the determination of bands IV and VI, which are characteristic for horse, lead to the identifica tion of horse meat in the mixture. Below these mixture rates, down to 5 % h orsemeat and pork mixed into beef sausages, it was concluded that the sausa ge was not made from only beef by determination of band VI which was darker compared to beef sausage.