Test for horse meat developed

Scientists at the Institute of Food Research on the Norwich Research Park have teamed up with Oxford Instruments to develop a fast, cheap alternative to DNA testing as a means of distinguishing horse meat from beef. 

Because horses and cattle have different digestive systems, the fat components of the two meats have different fatty acid compositions, as the team report in the journal 'Food Chemistry'. The new method looks at differences in the chemical composition of the fat in the meats, using similar technology to a hospital MRI scanner.

In just ten minutes, a technician can determine whether a piece of raw meat is horse or beef. The method, developed with funding from Innovate UK and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) has recently been trialled in an industrial setting by a leading meat processor. It is currently being extended by the team of scientists to test for other meat species, including pork and lamb.

The horse meat scandal of 2013 was sparked by the discovery of horse meat in a number of beef burgers. Soon, horse meat was detected in other meat products, leading to millions of pounds worth of food being taken off supermarket shelves. The crisis exposed the potential vulnerability of the meat supply chain to fraud and even to threats to public health, and highlighted gaps in testing.

The currently favoured method of meat species testing relies on DNA, which can tell one meat from another based on the genetic makeup of the source animals, but is relatively slow and expensive and prone to contamination if not used carefully.