Metabolomic approach for the detection of mechanically recovered meat in food products

Mechanically recovered meat (MRM) is generated by mechanical treatment of remnants following hand deboning. EU regulations exclude MRM from the definition of meat; as a consequence there is a need for robust analytical procedures to differentiate MRM from hand-deboned meat (HDM) and desinewed meat. Present study represents the development of an analytical platform for the detection of adulteration of meat products with MRM. Small molecular weight compounds were extracted from meat samples and analysed using GC–MS. Obtained metabolite profiles were modelled with OPLS-DA for the accurate classification of MRM, HDM and desinewed pork and chicken samples. Separation of three classes of products for fresh chicken and pork meat samples was achieved. In addition, the procedure also enabled proper prediction of samples not included in the model as well as pork commercial meat products. Compounds that could be potential markers for MRM detection in commercial products were also selected.

Research highlights
► GC–MS is a suitable method for metabolite profiling of meat extracts.
► OPLS-DA models enabled classification of different kinds of meat.
► Markers for mechanically recovered meat are fat-related compounds.