The kit, which is only to be available in December 2015, could be of use to Muslim consumers, food, medicine and cosmetics manufacturers in addition to certification bodies.
Existing halal testing typically makes use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods. Profound Kestrel Labs has the PKL PorcineTrace PCR kit, which enables detection of porcine DNA down to 5 pg of porcine DNA traces in food products within approximately 3-4 hours (excluding the DNA extraction process). Its PKL Porcine qPCR Detection kit utilises a slightly different PCR method to come up with results in two hours, excluding DNA extraction.
Perkin Elmer, which already offers a halal testing kit called the Porcine Detection Kit for raw and processed meats, has created a table comparing current methods for determining if material is halal. The company's kit uses immunochromatography, and can complete tests in 20 minutes, with 0.005% accuracy. The company notes that tests were only done on up to 0.005% concentrations and the kit could well detect pork at even lower concentrations.
In January this year, analytical technology firm AB SCIEX announced that its scientists, together with scientists from the University of Münster, Germany, had developed a new method for detecting pig and horse contamination of meat, including beef, chicken, lamb and others. The company had previously developed similar methods for protein screening in food, including new techniques for detecting allergens such as eggs, milk, sesame seeds, nuts, and mustard simultaneously in food samples.
The new mass spectrometry-based method offers a more accurate and reliable approach to identifying meat species than other methods, AB SCIEX said, and can detect markers of multiple animal species in a single run whereas traditional methods such as PCR or ELISA can lead to false negative or false positive* findings.
"One of our goals was to develop a method that could be widely and routinely used by scientists in food testing labs, many of which have suitable mass spectrometry platforms," said Dr. Jens Brockmeyer, Research Group Leader at the Institut für Lebensmittelchemie, University of Münster in a release from the company in January.
Scientists at AB SCIEX are continuing to look into other similar areas of ethical concern, including detection of gelatin that has come from species such as beef and pork. An experiment conducted by AB SCIEX has shown that a gelatin ingredient can be extracted and analysed in less than 1 hour and a 1% impurity of pork in beef gelatin can be detected. The method can be used to detect the origin of gelatin that is found in sweets or medicine.
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| Source: Perkins Elmer website. |
The new mass spectrometry-based method offers a more accurate and reliable approach to identifying meat species than other methods, AB SCIEX said, and can detect markers of multiple animal species in a single run whereas traditional methods such as PCR or ELISA can lead to false negative or false positive* findings.
"One of our goals was to develop a method that could be widely and routinely used by scientists in food testing labs, many of which have suitable mass spectrometry platforms," said Dr. Jens Brockmeyer, Research Group Leader at the Institut für Lebensmittelchemie, University of Münster in a release from the company in January.
Scientists at AB SCIEX are continuing to look into other similar areas of ethical concern, including detection of gelatin that has come from species such as beef and pork. An experiment conducted by AB SCIEX has shown that a gelatin ingredient can be extracted and analysed in less than 1 hour and a 1% impurity of pork in beef gelatin can be detected. The method can be used to detect the origin of gelatin that is found in sweets or medicine.
*False negatives claim that the test is negative when it is not. In a test checking if a beef sample contains pork, a false negative would say there is no pork when it actually exists in the meat. A false positive claims the test is positive when it is not. In a test checking if a meat sample contains pork, a false positive would show that there is pork in the meat when there is actually no pork.