Results of an International Interlaboratory Trial to Determine Twelve Allergens Using Real-time PCR- and ELISA-based Assays.

To elucidate the capability of laboratories to determine allergen contents, an international interlaboratory trial was conducted using meat products spiked with 12 allergens. The measurement uncertainty was calculated independent of the applied method simulating realistic situations when comparing analysis certificates from different laboratories. The measurement uncertainty was revealed to be in the best cases +/-100%, in the worst cases quantification exhibited a measurement uncertainty of higher than 200% making quantitative analysis impossible. The measurement uncertainty seemed to depend on the analyte and assays used.

Quantification of meat proportions by measuring DNA contents in raw and boiled sausages using matrix-adapted calibrators and multiplex real-time PCR.

The quantification of meat proportions in raw and boiled sausage according to the recipe was evaluated using three different calibrators. To measure the DNA contents from beef, pork, sheep (mutton), and horse, a tetraplex real-time PCR method was applied. Nineteen laboratories analyzed four meat products each made of different proportions of beef, pork, sheep, and horse meat. Three kinds of calibrators were used: raw and boiled sausages of known proportions ranging from 1 to 55% of meat, and a dilution series of DNA from muscle tissue. In general, results generated using calibration sausages were more accurate than those resulting from the use of DNA from muscle tissue, and exhibited smaller measurement uncertainties. Although differences between uses of raw and boiled calibration sausages were small, the most precise and accurate results were obtained by calibration with fine-textured boiled reference sausages.