Screening test to detect meat adulteration through the determination of hemoglobin by cation exchange chromatography with diode array detection.

A simple sample preparation procedure, consisting of an extraction step with Milli-Q water as extraction solvent for hemoglobins from meat samples, followed by a filtration step with a cellulose acetate filter, is applied. After cation exchange chromatographic separation and diode array detection, different peak patterns for extracted hemoglobins of cow, lamb or pork meat are obtained. Other heme-group containing proteins like myoglobin or cytochrome C, which could be also detected with diode array detection at 416 nm, are chromatographically separated from the hemoglobins. By the use of these characteristic peak patterns, the species of the meat can be specified permitting the qualitative assessment of meat adulteration with the proposed screening method.