Molecular Based Method Using PCR Technology on Porcine Derivative Detection for Halal Authentication

Abstract

Halal food and pharmaceuticals were taken into account as food and pharmaceutical products permitted to be consumed by Muslim according to Sharia law. Due to the devel- opment of science and technology, especially in food and pharmaceutical industry, some industries use non-halal components such as pig derivatives in food and pharmaceuti- cal products to reduce the production cost. Non-halal components added in food and pharmaceutical products are difficult to detect visually due to close similarity between non-halal and halal components present in food and pharmaceutical products. Some of the methods already developed in the laboratory include spectroscopic methods using infrared radiation, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, chromatography-based methods, electronic nose, DNA-based and differential scanning calorimetric for pig component analysis. Food and pharma- ceutical matrix is very complex to be analyzed; therefore, the signals obtained during chemical and biological analyses are very complex and are difficult to interpret. Even though the spectroscopy- and chromatography-based methods are able to determine the pig derivative component, there are some difficulties for the application in the field of blind samples, caused by the complex matrix of food or pharmaceutical. Among ana- lytical methods, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based on the molecular genetic analysis was believed to be highly sensitive, valid and judgable as well as reliable for the analytical instrument. Therefore, this chapter describes some methodologies based on DNA technology such as conventional PCR using universal primer through restriction fragment length polymorphism or specific primer. This chapter also gives detailed infor- mation on the application of the real-time PCR using species-specific primer for porcine determination as well as for halal authentication.