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Identification of Ingredient in Mullet Roe Products by the Real-Time PCR Method

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Abstract

Mullet roe is a product of high economic value in a number of Asian countries, particularly Taiwan. However, actual mullet roe is commonly adulterated by the addition of other species, such as escolar and oilfish. The purpose of this study was to develop a method to detect the ingredient of mullet roe products. Based on the TaqMan real-time PCR assay, we designed the specific primers-probe set (mullet) that targets the mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Meanwhile, the positive amplification control is designed based on the eukaryotic 18S rRNA gene. The PCR amplicon used to identify fish species in processed roe products is smaller than 200 bp. Method specificity was evaluated by analyzing tissue samples of 29 food fish and 9 puffer fish species. No indications of cross-reactivity toward non-target species were observed. Sensitivity and linearity tests were conducted using five-fold serial dilutions of target DNA from processed mullet roe, and we determined that our proposed method has a sensitivity of 1.2 ng. Further tests on a random survey of commercial fish roe products demonstrated the efficacy of the technique in the detection of mullet DNA. The real-time PCR methods developed in this study could be used to verify the labeling of actual mullet roe products.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (DOH101-FDA-72024). The authors are grateful to the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C.) for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Research and Analysis, Taiwan Food and Drug Administration, Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

    Je-Hung Kuo, Hsiu-Wei Tsuei, Zih-Ling Jia, Che-Yang Lin, Yuan-Hsin Chang, Bo-Lin Chen, Jung Kuan, Hsu-Yang Lin, Lih-Ching Chiueh, Daniel Yang-Chih Shih & Hwei-Fang Cheng

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  1. Je-Hung Kuo
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  2. Hsiu-Wei Tsuei
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  3. Zih-Ling Jia
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  6. Bo-Lin Chen
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  7. Jung Kuan
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  11. Hwei-Fang Cheng
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Correspondence to Hsu-Yang Lin.

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Conflict of Interest

Je-Hung Kuo declares that he has no conflict of interest. Hsiu-Wei Tsuei declares that he has no conflict of interest. Zih-Ling Jia declares that she has no conflict of interest. Che-Yang Lin declares that he has no conflict of interest. Yuan-Hsin Chang declares that he has no conflict of interest. Bo-Lin Chen declares that he has no conflict of interest. Jung Kuan declares that he has no conflict of interest. Hsu-Yang Lin declares that he has no conflict of interest. Lih-Ching Chiueh declares that she has no conflict of interest. Daniel Yang-Chih Shih declares that he has no conflict of interest. Hwei-Fang Cheng declares that she has no conflict of interest.

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Human and animal studies were not performed in this study by any authors.

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Kuo, JH., Tsuei, HW., Jia, ZL. et al. Identification of Ingredient in Mullet Roe Products by the Real-Time PCR Method. Food Anal. Methods 11, 992–1000 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-017-1043-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-017-1043-7

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