Quantitative detection of soybean in meat products by a TaqMan real-time PCR assay

•Normalised real-time PCR quantification of soybean•In-house validation and effective application of the method•Assessment of compliance of meat containing products with labelled soybean•Identification of fraudulent soybean addition to foods

In the present work, we propose a normalised real-time quantitative PCR assay to determine the addition of soybean to meat products. The method proved to be a powerful tool for the quantification of soybean protein (dry basis) in the range of 0.01% to 6%, being successfully in-house validated. Its application was effective in the analysis of several meat products, indicating 2% of non-compliance with the food allergen labelling legislation, and some inconsistencies when comparing the declared with estimated amounts of soybean. This work highlights the importance of efficient tools to assess labelling statements of meat products, avoiding fraudulent practices.