Fighting frankfurter fraud

Synonymous with American baseball games and kids’ birthday parties, for many people the hot dog is a guilty pleasure. But what is actually in that frankfurter? (And do I really want to know?)

Frankfurter fraud is real, and for those who can’t consume certain types of meats for health, cultural or religious reasons, it’s important to know what they’re eating. Now, scientists have come to the rescue.

Currently, testing the authenticity of a meat product involves sampling its DNA, amplifying the genetic material with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and looking for certain markers. But existing methods often only search for one, long DNA sequence, which could break down during food processing and lead to false results.

Scientists from Malaysia have developed a technique to look for pairs of short DNA sequences from beef, buffalo and pork in hot dogs. They used their approach on 20 beef frankfurters that they bought in local markets, and testing showed their target sequences were stable under food processing conditions.

Reinforcing the need for their work, the researchers found that all of the hot dogs labelled as ‘beef’ also contained buffalo meat.

The research has been reported in ACS’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

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