From the ACS Press Room
Revealing Meat and Fish Fraud with a Handheld ‘MasSpec Pen’ in Seconds “Rapid Analysis and Authentication of Meat site labs. Previous studies have devised more Using the MasSpec Pen Technology” direct and on-site food analysis methods with Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemis- mass spectrometry, using the amounts of molecular components to verify meat sources, try but they also destroyed samples during the Meat and fish fraud are global problems, process or required sample preparation steps. costing consumers billions of dollars every More recently, Livia Eberlin and colleagues year. On top of that, mislabeling products can developed the MasSpec Pen — a handheld cause problems for people with allergies, re- device that gently extracts compounds from a ligious or cultural restrictions. Current meth- material’s surface within seconds and then ods to detect this fraud, while accurate, are analyzes them on a mass spectrometer. So, slower than inspectors would like. Now, re- the team wanted to see whether this device searchers reporting in ACS’ Journal of Agri- could rapidly and effectively detect meat and cultural and Food Chemistry have opti- fish fraud in pure filets and ground products. mized their handheld MasSpec Pen to identiThe researchers used the MasSpec Pen to exfy common types of meat and fish within 15 amine the molecular composition of grainseconds. fed and grass-fed beef, chicken, pork, lamb, News stories venison and five common fish species colof food fraud, lected from grocery stores. Once the device’s such as beef tip was pressed against a sample, a 20-µL being replaced droplet of solvent was released, extracting with horse sufficient amounts of molecules within three meat, and seconds for accurate analysis by mass speccheaper fish trometry. The whole process took 15 seconds, being branded required no preprocessing, and the liquid exas premium fillets, have led people to ques- traction did not harm the samples’ surfaces. tion if what is on the label is actually in the Then the team developed authentication package. To combat food adulteration, the models using the unique patterns of the moleU.S. Department of Agriculture conducts reg- cules identified, including carnosine, anserular, random inspections of these products. ine, succinic acid, xanthine and taurine, to Although current molecular techniques, such distinguish pure meat types from each other, as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), are beef based on feeding habit and among the highly accurate, these analyses can take hours to days, and are often performed at offContinued on page 19
April 2021
The Southwest RETORT
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