A novel method to detect meat adulteration by recombinase polymerase amplification and SYBR green I

Meat adulteration is one of the most common economic fraudulences in food industry. Current methodologies of meat source identification are complex, time-consuming and require sophisticated equipment. Hence, a simpler species specific method to determinate species is urgently needed. Here, we developed a novel method to visually identify the adulteration of meat using recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) and SYBR green I (SG). At the isothermal temperature of 37 °C, RPA specifically identifies duck, chicken, cow, sheep and pig within 30 min of water bath. The RPA amplicons were successfully visualized by adding SG I. Furthermore, RPA can differentiate species of boiled, microwaved, high pressured or fried samples. Finally, using this system, we visually identified 1% pork adulterated in mutton or beef.