Review: Methods to determine offal adulteration in meat products to support enforcement and food security

Abstract

Offal tissues carry a lower market value compared to skeletal meats in some global markets. The inclusion of offal in any meat product in the EU and UK must be declared on the label. While many technologies have been applied to the challenge of determining adulteration with offal in meat products, no single method has been recognised and validated as a reliable test to support legislative requirements. This literature review investigated appropriate methods to determine the adulteration of meat with offal. The aim was to identify technologies suitable for future validation to underpin a high throughput, low-cost method suitable for application by enforcement laboratories. Considering all of the methods, technologies which determine elemental composition and peptide markers were particularly highlighted as demonstrating potential for future development to determine a wide range of offal tissues to support the safety and integrity of the food chain.

Keywords: Enforcement; Food security; Meat authenticity; Offal.