Development of a COX1 based PCR-RFLP method for fish species identification

Economically motivated adulteration and species substitution of certain types of seafood are of concern within the global food supply chain. Complex multinational supply chains, price pressure, as well as resource limitations for certain food commodities invite substitution of higher value ingredients with lower value species or varieties. Due to these issues, the seafood market is particularly susceptible to fraud and substitution. In the past polymerase chain reaction – restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) methods based on a mitochondrial CytB target have been developed and are in routine use. The aim of this work was to develop a faster method with higher sample throughput using microfluidics based capillary electrophoresis and a target within the COX1 barcoding region.