Species authentication of commercial beef jerky based on PCR-RFLP analysis of the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene

In this study, we determined species-specific variations by analyzing the mitochondrial 12S rRNA gene sequence variation (similar to 440 bp) in 17 newly obtained sequences and 90 published cattle, yak, buffalo, goat, and pig sequences, which represent 62 breeds and 17 geographic regions. Based on the defined species-specific variations, two endonucleases, Alu I and Bfa I, were selected for species authentication using raw meat/tissue samples and the PCR-RFLP method. Goat and pig were identified using the Alu I enzyme, while cattle, yak, and buffalo were identified by digestion with Bfa I. Our approach had relatively high detection sensitivity of cattle DNA in mixed cattle and yak products, with the lowest detectable threshold equaling 20% of cattle DNA in a mixed cattle/yak sample. This method was successfully used to type commercial beef jerky products, which were produced by different companies utilizing various processing technologies. Our results show that several yak jerky products might be implicated in commercial fraud by using cattle meat instead of yak meat.