New Meat Species tests
The food industry now recognises the emerging issue of food crime. There have been recent suspected cases concerning meat in China, France and South Africa. It is important to be vigilant and detect undeclared meat species in raw meat products. Bio-Check (UK) has just launched its new FlowThrough™ range to make testing raw meats much easier. The new tests detect cow, horse, pig, poultry and sheep species below the 1% action limit. This is enabling meat processors to distinguish adventitious contamination from adulteration in only 12 minutes. All the components for performing the tests are included in the single test packs. Colour coding is used to differentiate one species specific test from another. The integrated Control not only verifies the functionality of the test but also that reagents have been used correctly making the tests suitable for use by non-technical staff. The tests are easy to read and validated using Reference Materials. These unique tests improve manufacturers’ traceability thus underpinning the robustness of their quality systems and evidence-base for third party accreditation. Bio-Check believes the tests support a key recommendation of the Food Standards Agency Incident Report to improve intelligence through analytical capability.