Design and Validation of Short-Amplicon Length PCR Assay for the Detection of Porcine Gelatin in Commercial Candy and Marshmallow Products

Sharaf Omar¹, Maen Hasan², Saeid Abu-Romman³, Heba Ramadan³, Ala A. Qatatsheh^4*, Hanee Al-dmoor¹

¹Department of Nutrition and Food Science Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Al-Balqa Applied University, Al-Salt 19117, Jordan
²Department of Plant Production and Protection, Al-Balqa Applied University, Al-Salt 19117, Jordan
³Department of Biotechnology. Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Al-Balqa Applied University, Al-Salt 19117, Jordan
⁴Department of Nursing, Princess Aisha Bint Al-Hussein Faculty of Nursing, Al-Hussein bin Talal University, Ma’an, Jordan and Department of Clinical Nutrition, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, Qassim University, Arrass, Saudi Arabia.

Corresponding Author Email: mlgodhia@yahoo.co.in

Porcine gelatin has been used in many food products. To ensure the compliance of food products with halal regulations and label description, reliable analytical methods are required. In this study, Porcine-specific short amplicon-size for conventional PCR assay was developed for the detection of gelatin in commercial candy and marshmallow products. A pair of porcine-specific primers defining a 74 bp region of the mitochondrial D-loop sequence were designed. One hundred and three samples including seventy six samples from candies and twenty seven samples from marshmallow were purchased from local market in Amman, Jordan. The results revealed that seventeen samples were found to contain porcine gelatin ingredients and the rest 86 were found to be negative. Nine of the positive samples were Gelatin labeled, and eight were not identified to contain gelatin. Of these samples. Five were also labeled as Halal. So, we demonstrated that the authentication of commercial sweet ingredients using PCR assay is effective and protect consumers from being mislead due to mislabels.

Candy; Conventional PCR; Gelatin, Marshmallow; Porcine; Species-Specific Primers

[ HTML Full Text]