Fast and on-site animal species identification in processed meat via centrifugal microfluidics and isothermal amplification

• Published in: Lab on a chip Vol. 24; no. 4; pp. 975 - 984
• Main Authors: Niebling, Laura, Nitzsche, Ramona, Sieksmeyer, Thorben, Haskamp, Vera, Kissenkötter, Jonas, Abd El Wahed, Ahmed, Teufel, Thomas, Hermann, Herbert, Paust, Nils, Homann, Ana R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 13.02.2024
• Subjects: Amplification; Animals; Beef; Cartridges; Cattle; Chickens; Horses; Meat; Meat - analysis; Meat Products - analysis; Microfluidics; Pork; Reagents; Sausages; Sheep; Workflow
• ISSN: 1473-0197; 1473-0189
• DOI: 10.1039/d3lc01103h

We present a novel centrifugal microfluidic approach to rapidly identify animal species in meat products. The workflow requires a centrifugal cartridge for DNA extraction and for preparation of a recombinant polymerase amplification (RPA) reaction, a programmable centrifuge for processing the cartridge and an isothermal reader to perform the RPA. Liquid reagents are pre-stored on the cartridge and the meat sample can be added directly without any pre-treatment. With this system, we are able to identify six different animal species in a single run within one hour. In pork salami containing horse, turkey, sheep, chicken and beef meat, it was possible to identify species levels as low as 0.01%. In beef salami and cooked pork sausages 0.1% of foreign meat could be detected. This novel workflow enables rapid and sensitive species identification in processed meat at the point of need.