Purpose: Evogen has developed a fast and easy method to detect pork in processed meat products. This method makes use of a nucleic acid extraction chemistry and loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP). This method allows for results to be available to the user in less then one hour.
Methods: Several different processed meat products were obtained from a local supermarket. Some of the products did not contain pork according the manufacturer and other products did contain pork. A one millimeter cube was cut from each product. The cube was placed into 200 µl of the nucleic acid extraction solution and incubated for 15 minutes at 95 °C. After incubation, the DNA from the lysate was used in a LAMP reaction using the Optigene Genie II and specificity of the porcine LAMP assay was determined by running exclusivity organisms including chicken, beef, and lamb.
Results: The samples that were pork-free according to the manufacturer were found to be pork-free from our test. The products that contained pork tested positive for pork with our method. These samples had a crossing threshold on average of fourteen minutes. The assay did not detect any of the exclusivity organisms.
Significance: The evaluated extraction protocol with LAMP assay delivers a quick and simple solution for detection of pork in meat products. From sample to results, detection took less then one hour to bring peace of mind to millions of people throughout the world.