A New Biosensor Can Efficiently Detect Horse Meat Adulteration

An electrochemical biosensor developed by the Complutense University of Madrid can detect horse meat adulterating other meat like beef in an hour. The biosensor can detect the adulteration with only 0.5% (w/w) of horse meat.

The biosensor can pick up a DNA fragment which appears unchanged in more than 4,500 mitochondrial genomes of horses sequenced but isn’t seen in any other mammal. “Thus, It is possible to identify selectively and without false positives any type of horse meat, regardless of race,” F. Javier Gallego, researcher of the department of Genetics of the UCM told Science Insider.

José M. Pingarrón, head of the Department of Analytical Chemistry told Science Insider, “In addition to moving to the identification of other mammalian DNAs, this methodology could be applied for both the detection of adulterations involving other animal meats and for screening purposes to identify all animal species present in a meat,” points out to Science Insider.