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Development and validation of multiplex PCR assay for differentiating tunas and billfishes

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Abstract

Commercially available tunas and billfishes are generally processed as steaks, making it difficult to visually distinguish between the two. We developed and validated species-specific primers to prevent the adulteration of tunas by billfishes. Tunas and billfishes primers were designed on the cytochrome oxidase subunit I. Multiplex PCR bands obtained were 579 bp, 291 bp and 114 bp for tunas, billfishes and internal control. Sensitivity was determined to be 5 ng for tunas and billfishes. A total of 50 samples were monitored: 49 for tunas and 1 for billfish. As a result of the monitoring, the fake tunas did not show due to the agreement between product name and the raw material of the wrapping paper. Our results indicate that the species-specific primers developed in this study are suitable for differentiating tunas and billfishes. The newly developed multiplex PCR assay is a time and cost effective technique for determining the authenticity of tunas and billfishes.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a Grant (17162 MFDS 064) from Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in 2019.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science and Technology, Suncheon National University, Suncheon, Jeonnam, 57922, Korea

    Na-Ye-Seul Kim, Eun-Ji Park, Seo-Hyun Lee, Kwang-Ho Mun & Jung-Beom Kim

  2. Department of Food Science and Technology, Pukyong National University, Busan, 48513, Korea

    Ji-Young Yang

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  1. Na-Ye-Seul Kim
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  2. Eun-Ji Park
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  3. Seo-Hyun Lee
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Correspondence to Jung-Beom Kim.

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Kim, NYS., Park, EJ., Lee, SH. et al. Development and validation of multiplex PCR assay for differentiating tunas and billfishes. Food Sci Biotechnol 30, 497–503 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10068-021-00893-0

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