Meat From 32 Different Animals in One Tested Sandwich

[Guest guest]

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994735

 

The World's No.1 Science & Technology News Service 

 

Ever wondered whether your chicken has been bulked up with beef or pork

extracts? Or if your burger contains mice or even bits of people that fell

into the mincer? Thanks to a single test that claims to reveal the

presence of meat from 32 different animals, these questions can now be

answered. The test is based on a DNA chip called the " FoodExpert-ID " chip

and its main use would be to ensure that meat products are what they say

the are and don't contain anything they shouldn't...

 

DNA chip will catch beefed up chicken

 

19:00 03 March 04

 

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issues.

 

A single test can now reveal the presence of meat from any of 32 different

species in food samples, enabling a wide range of important questions to

be answered.

 

These include whether chicken has been bulked up with beef or pork

extracts; whether expensive albacore tuna is really cheap skipjack tuna;

whether rats, mice or even bits of people fell into the mincer when your

burger was being made; and whether unscrupulous companies are risking

spreading mad cow disease by adding beef to cattle feed?

 

The test, based on a DNA chip, is being evaluated by food regulatory

authorities in Europe, and could also be used by supermarkets and food

companies to check on their suppliers.

 

" The beauty of this is that you can scan for so many things at once, " says

Thomas Schlumberger, director of clinical genetics at Affymetrix in

California, which developed the " FoodExpert-ID " chip together with

bioM‡rieux of France.

 

The chip's main use would to ensure meat products are what they say they

are and do not contain anything they should not. It can reveal, for

example, whether foie gras p‡t‡ really contains goose liver.

 

 

Bulking up

 

 

The test could also help expose scams like the one uncovered in Europe in

May 2002, in which a few poultry producers were caught bulking up chicken

meat with beef and pork waste. As well as posing a possible BSE risk, the

scam also meant that people whose religions forbid eating pork may have

ended up consuming it.

 

The UK's Food Standards Agency says that it is evaluating the potential of

the test and comparing it with a more experimental system built by Agilent

of California. However, determined food fraudsters may be able to outwit

the chip. It has been claimed that some producers are treating beef or

pork extracts to destroy the DNA before they add them to other meats.

 

If the chip takes off, its first specific task is likely to be ensuring

that cattle feed is free of any illegal animal remains that might spread

BSE. In the US, which reported its first case of BSE in December, the

Department of Agriculture may consider evaluating the test.

 

It is being assessed in Europe, where all animal remains have been banned

from feed since 2000. Trials are planned this year in the UK, the

Netherlands and France. " We would find this very valuable if it does what

it's meant to, " says a spokesman at the UK's environment ministry.

 

DNA microarray chips have long been used in the lab (New Scientist print

edition, 14 November 1998), but Affymetrix claims the FoodExpert-ID is the

first mainstream commercial application of the technology.

 

The chip's surface sports segments of DNA unique to each species arranged

into discrete zones. DNA strands from the food sample are transcribed into

RNA and tagged with fluorescent chemicals. These are then washed over the

chip. Any matching sequences stick together, so the pattern of fluorescent

zones read by a laser scanner reveals which species are present.

 

Schlumberger estimates the cost of all the equipment needed to perform the

tests is around $250,000, but each test would cost only $350 to $550.

Future generations of the chip could include DNA from an even larger

number of species.

 

Affymetrix expects its microarrays to become the " Intel chips of

microbiology " , and is developing similar devices with Roche Diagnostics of

Switzerland to diagnose human cancers and viruses such as HIV.

 

 

Andy Coghlan

 

 

 

 

 

" Far from being allergic to sex, the Victorians were obviously besotted

with it. Distinctions between erotic and pornographic (the word was

evidently coined then) and between art and obscenity were cheerfully

debated, the paintings, sculptures, drawings and photographs here proving

how vigorously artists threw themselves into the discussion... Fortunately,

the show does not stint on genuine porn... Erotic these snippets are not,

but then, perhaps it's just that the excitement caused by seeing a naked

or almost naked body tends to peter out when you see so many of them at a

time... "

--Michael Kimmelman in " Invasion of the Nude Victorians (In the Name of

Art, of Course) " , NY Times, 6 Sept. 2002

[Guest guest]

Bleh. Reports like this make me ever so glad that

I don't eat meat. It is good to be informed.

Thanks for posting the article, I found it interesting.

 

~ feral ~

 

Science has its being in a perpetual mental restlessness.

~ William J. Temple

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~~~>

, The Stewarts <stews9@c...>

wrote:

> http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994735

>  

> The World's No.1 Science & Technology News Service 

[Guest guest]

yes, very interesting... but why would meatheads care whether their

meats are mixed? Seems like vegetarians could benefit a lot more

from these tests than them.

 

 

, " Feral "

> Bleh. Reports like this make me ever so glad that

> I don't eat meat. It is good to be informed.

> Thanks for posting the article, I found it interesting.

>

> ~ feral ~

>

 

> ~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~~~>

> , The Stewarts

<stews9@c...>

> wrote:

> > http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994735