Identification of animal species in ground meat mixtures by multivariate analysis of isoelectric focusing protein profiles

Abstract
The present work investigates the possibility of constructing a multivariate calibration model to predict the composition of ground meat with respect to animal species, based on intensity profiles from isoelectric focusing of water‐soluble proteins in mixtures of ground meat. Samples containing various amounts of beef, pork and turkey meat were analyzed by isoelectric focusing in immobilized pH‐gradients. The gels were photographed and the images transferred to a digital format. The digital images were processed in order to reduce background and optimize signal strength. Resulting gel profiles were analyzed by multivariate regression allowing the determination of sample composition with prediction errors close to 10%.