Meat Forensics Analysis of Fast Food Chains Located at The University of British Columbia

Abstract

Increased demand for meat products has caused the food industry worldwide to amplify production, leading to malpractice and meat fraud around world supply chains. This study aimed to assess beef quality among burgers on the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus for undeclared meat species. It was expected that the burgers sampled would contain the presence of undeclared species due to cross-contamination in the workplace. DNA extraction and multiplex PCR were conducted on 5 burgers across the University of British Columbia (UBC) campus including a plant-based burger, and raw steak as a control. The positive control indicated the presence of cattle (274bp) and horse meat (439bp). Results among other samples were inconsistent due to smearing spanning cattle (274bp), poultry (398bp), and horsemeat (439bp). Contamination of the control was suspected to be the result of non-sterile techniques used during production. Photospectrometry confirmed protein contamination (~1.70 avg) among most samples, suggesting heat-induced DNA degradation during the cooking process and compromising the effectiveness of PCR amplification. Future investigations would suggest the analysis of raw meat to mitigate complications of heat-induced DNA damage on PCR amplification.