Amino acid analysis for meat protein evaluation

The Food Safety and Inspection Service procedure for determination of essential amino acid content of mechanically processed products from red meat animals and poultry is based on hydrolysis of a powder prepared by blending samples in acetone-chloroform. The hydrolysis procedure incorporates thioglycolic acid to prevent loss of tryptophan. Aliquots of prepared hydrolysates are injected into a liquid chromatographic system, using gradient elution on an ion-exchange column for separation. The system also uses post-column hypochlorite oxidation coupled with orthophthalaldehyde reagent and fluorescence detection. Modification of the elution program allows concurrent determination of tryptophan with minimal added cost. Chromatograms from beef, pork, and poultry products show adequate separation and quantitation of beta-alanine, 1-methyl-histidine, and 3-methyl-histidine, indicating that the procedure could be used to estimate muscle content of products. A colorimetric procedure for assay of hydroxyproline was introduced and validated as an adjunct method for protein quality estimation.