Background: Detection of food adulteration is an important issue from aspects of food control and food regulation. This study aimed to detect adulteration of chicken meat in raw hamburger using species specific Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR).
Methods: Raw hamburgers including 42 handmade and 48 industrial samples were collected from 90 restaurants and supermarkets. Following genomic DNA extraction from raw hamburgers which were claimed to be made of beef meat, PCR was performed to detect chicken (Gallus gallus) meat as an adulterant.
Results: The oligonucleotide primers amplified mitochondrial DNA sequences under selected conditions and revealed specific 183 and 300 base pair fragment for chicken and cattle, respectively. Results showed that 94.4% of all hamburgers, including 100% of handmade and 89.6% of industrial samples, contained undeclared chicken meat.
Conclusion: This high rate of undeclared chicken meat in hamburger samples may be related to mixing beef with cheaper parts of chicken. The outcomes of this study suggest that this method of detection can be applied by quality control laboratories and inspection services to determine adulteration in different kinds of meat products.