Quantification of beef and pork fraction in sausages by real-time PCR analysis:: results of an interlaboratory trial

The performance of quantitative PCR-methods for the determination of beef and pork fraction in sausage was tested in an interlaboratory trial. Twelve different laboratories analysed four sausages of different composition of beef and pork by using four sausages of known fraction of meat as calibrators. Although different PCR-methods were applied, the precision of all results was better than 16% and the trueness better than 25%. The main reason for the good performance is the use of common calibrators emphasizing the importance of the quality of calibrators for molecular analysis. Thus, we conclude, that PCR-based detection methods are suitable for quantitative control of meat fractions in sausages.