Proper product description is of crucial importance in ensuring fair trading practices and enabling consumers to make informed choices and is therefore addressed in some detail in UK food legislation. This paper will briefly examine the historical development of UK food laws and the meaning of “authenticity” within the context of current legislation, particularly with respect to meat and fish products. The food authenticity programme of the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) is discussed, outlining its R and D programme and detailing the types of topics under consideration, and how selection of surveillance projects is determined.

The possibility of using immunological techniques as a method for the detection of mechanically recovered chicken meat in meat products has been investigated in this preliminary study. Antibodies were raised against a low molecular weight fraction (≤ 30 kDa) of chicken bone marrow proteins and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) developed. The system was used to test for the presence of mechanically recovered meat (MRM) in a range of product types, from raw chicken meat through to heat processed samples. The results show that it is possible to raise antibodies to chicken bone marrow proteins which show a strong reactivity with chicken and turkey MRM but show little reaction with extracts of MRM and hand deboned meat of other common meat species. However, blood, skin and soya all affected the accuracy of the ELISA. This study has demonstrated the potential for the use of an immunological procedure as a rapid test for MRM. The selectivity of the antiserum would, however, have to be increased before this procedure could be considered as a suitable technique for the detection of MRM in meat products.

This was a preliminary study to investigate whether hyaline cartilage could be easily identified in mechanically recovered meat (MRM) and whether its presence could be used as a possible marker for MRM in meat products. MRMs produced from beef, pork, lamb, chicken and turkey, using a variety of machine types and processing conditions, were compared to both minced and colloid milled hand-deboned samples, using a chemical staining technique followed by examination using the light microscope. The methodology was tested on various mixtures of MRM and hand-deboned meat. Although this technique, as with most microscopy techniques generally, is not suitable for quantitative determinations, the results indicate that light microscopy could be used as a useful screening method.

The proximate composition (fat, moisture, nitrogen, ash and collagen) and the calcium, iron and total purine contents of samples of mechanically recovered meat (MRM) derived from beef, lamb, pork, chicken and turkey were analysed. The data obtained illustrate the variability in the composition of mechanically recovered meats derived from different meat species. The effect of including a high proportion of bones containing marrow in the starting material, the effect of recovery machine type (Yieldmaster and Protecon) and the effect of employing different operating conditions, were investigated. MRM produced using the Yieldmaster machine was generally found to contain higher concentrations of ash and calcium than that produced using the Protecon machine. Although operating conditions appeared to have little effect on the composition of mechanically recovered chicken meat, some differences were identified in mechanically recovered turkey and pork produced under different conditions. Comparison of the composition of MRM with that of meat removed manually, from close to the bone, from similar source materials highlighted a number of differences between the

This study investigated the use of sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) as a method for differentiating between mechanically recovered and hand deboned meat. Twenty-nine samples of mechanically recovered meat (MRM), including some heat treated samples, were obtained. The samples were derived from several animal species and processed using different machine types and a range of processing conditions. They were examined using SDS-PAGE and the separation patterns obtained compared with those of hand deboned meat (HDM) reference samples. There were obvious differences in the relative intensities of several bands within the profiles obtained which distinguished MRM from HDM. These were more obvious for red meat than poultry meat samples. A few differences were found between MRM samples produced using different machines but no apparent differences between samples produced using different machine operating conditions were observed. The technique was tested using composite MRM-HDM mixtures. It was possible to suggest an order of percentage incorporation of MRM at levels of down to 5-10% for red meat and 25% for poultry meat. With further development and refinement, it may be possible to use the technique to detect and possibly quantify MRM present in all types of meat products, including cooked meat products.

AbstractSamples of whole and manually degermed Atou wheat were milled on a micro‐mill to give straight‐run flour, coarse offal, fine offal, finished bran and bran finisher flour. The non‐starch lipids in these products were compared with non‐starch lipids in the aleurone‐free starchy endosperm, and with lipids in the germ and aleurone of the original wheat. About half of the triglyceride in flour was derived from the germ; no glycolipids or phospholipids were derived from germ, and no lipids of any kind were derived from the aleurone. Non‐starch lipids in the aleurone‐free endosperm of a mixed English soft wheat grist were then compared with the non‐starch lipids in 11 flour streams from a commercial mill. All flours had much more triglyceride than the endosperm. In flours from the reduction system there were significant correlations between flour colour grade, sterylester, triglyceride, diglyceride, free fatty acid and diacylphospholipids, but none between ash or protein and colour or any class of lipid. Analysis of the principal components of variation in a simplified matrix describing all 11 flours placed triglyceride, diglyceride, free fatty acid, and diacylphospholipids close together in one group, and all glycolipids and N‐acylphospholipids in a separate unrelated group. Sterylester and colour were loosely associated with the first group but could also be regarded as part of a third loose group with ash and protein. The results are interpreted in terms of lipid distribution within the wheat kernel, and their significance in milling and baking practice.

AbstractMethods are described for the extraction and quantification of total lipids in cereal grains and other similar tissues, and for the determination of all the major classes of acyl lipid found in these extracts. Total lipids, obtained by direct solvent extraction or after acid hydrolysis, are quantified as fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) by gas chromatography (g.c.), using heptadecanoate (17:0) as internal standard. Individual lipid classes are separated by thin‐layer chromatography; non‐polar lipids and glycolipids are measured as FAME by g.c., while phospholipids are determined from phosphorus distribution. Crude lipid extracts are used to avoid losses during purification, and methanolysis of lipid classes is always performed without extracting the lipids from silica gel in order to minimise autoxidation, handling losses and contamination. Corrections are described for minor losses during experimental procedures, and factors are given for conversion of weights of FAME or phosphorus into weights of original lipid. In the authors' laboratory the precision of routine determinations (variations expressed as percentage of mean values) are usually well within the limits: total lipids, 1.5%; major lipid classes, 1.5%; minor lipid classes, 5%.

AbstractThe quantitative distribution of 23 classes of acyl lipids was determined in the germ, aleurone, starch and endosperm non‐starch fractions of Atou (Soft English), Flinor (Hard English), Waldron (US Hard Red Spring) and Edmore (US Amber Durum) wheats. All four wheats had similar proportions (dry basis) of pericarp (6.8–8.6%), germ (2.5–3.0%), starchy endosperm (78.7–84.5%) and starch (59.3–67.5%), and similar quantities of acyl lipids in the whole kernels (2.8–3.2%), germ (25.7–30.5%), starch (0.8–1.2%) and endosperm non‐starch fractions (0.8–1.1%). Flinor, Waldron and Edmore had 7.3–10% aleurone containing 8.7–10.6% lipids, but Atou appeared to have an abnormally low aleurone weight (4.0%) and a correspondingly high lipid content (19.4%). Pericarp acyl lipids were studied only in Atou, where they comprised 1.3% of the dry weight and 3.8% of the total acyl lipids in the whole kernel. Lipids in the germ and aleurone consisted of triglycerides (60.3–79.3%), other nonpolar lipids (5.6–12.0%) and phospholipids (13.6–17.9%). Starch lipids were almost exclusively lysophospholipids (89.4–94.4%). Greater variation was found in the endosperm non‐starch lipids which consisted of triglycerides (13.7–34.1%), other nonpolar lipids (33.2–48.5%), glycolipids (18.6–38.3%) and phospholipids (21.9–35.3%). Edmore had the highest levels of triglycerides and non‐polar lipids, and the lowest levels of glycolipids (as expected in a tetraploid wheat). Atouresembled Edmore in its low levels of steryl esters and glycolipids, but it also had least phospholipids.