Detection of animal DNA in vegan food by multiplex qPCR system
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Detection of animal DNA in vegan food by multiplex qPCR system René Köppel1 · Regula Lederman1 · Franziska van Velsen1 · Arthika Ganeshan1 Received: 25 May 2020 / Revised: 31 August 2020 / Accepted: 5 September 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Vegan food claims to be free of all animal material. This must be verified by the food control authority and the production control laboratory. The method must be sensitive and able to detect animal material after processing such as pasteurization and storage. We have, therefore, developed a multiplex qPCR to simultaneously detect animal, fish and plant DNA in food samples. The system is cost-efficient and exhibited a high sensitivity. The specificity tests confirmed that all relevant species are detected. The plant-specific system served as a DNA isolation control and was used to generate valid results. A large selection of market samples had been analyzed and showed the expected results and the robustness of this analytical tool in routine analysis. Keywords Multiplex qPCR · Vegan · Animal DNA · Plant DNA · Fish DNA
Introduction Both, plant and animal tissue contain DNA. Consequently, the composition of food can be assessed by analyzing its DNA. Therefore, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is used for such analyses. Additional benefit of using DNA as a target is the stability to heat and storage. A first motivation for the detection of animals in vegetarian food is based on cultural preferences such as halal or kosher. Work has been done on the development of PCR systems for the detection of pig residues such as DNA in meat [1, 2]. In addition, quality control laboratories need systems for the detection of specific animals in food and developed such systems [3–6]. In 1992, many, mainly British cattle became ill with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). The feeding of animals with feed made of themselves (slaughterhouse waste) was banned. To control and prevent this, the feeding had to be checked for animal DNA. Several PCR systems that detect animal DNA with excellent sensitivity have been published [7–9]. Even vegetable oil was successfully tested for DNA, which is a very difficult task, as oil is a highly processed product and contains very little DNA [10]. * René Köppel [email protected] 1
Official Food Control Authority of the Canton Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland
Nowadays, veganism is popular. The production of meat consumes a large part of the resources that are used to produce our food. According to the WHO [11], high meat consumption can also have a negative effect on human health. For this reason, a growing group of people choose to live vegetarian or vegan, avoiding the consumption of animal products such as meat, milk and eggs. The food market supplies these people with suitable products, which consist mainly of vegetable material. Some products try to replace meat by simulating meat taste, texture and appearance. Others are traditional vegan products (e.g. tofu, seitan, tempeh) or are novel food
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