In this study, real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used for identifying the effects of different temperatures and times of heat treatment on the DNA of meat products. For this purpose, beef, pork, and chicken were baked at 200 °C for 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 min, and for 30 min at 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210 °C and also cooked by boiling at 99 °C for 10, 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210, and 240 min. The DNA was then extracted from all samples after the heat treatment. Further, a region of 374, 290, and 183-bp of mitochondrial DNA of beef, pork, and chicken, respectively, was amplified by real-time PCR. It was found that baking and boiling of the beef, pork, and chicken resulted in decreases in the detectable copy numbers of specific genes, which varied with the heating time and degree. The results indicated that species determination and quantification using real-time PCR are affected by the temperature, duration of the heat treatment, and size of the DNA fragment to be amplified.
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