EXCELMEAT Workshop
Biosensing Pork Quality
Lleida, 25 October 2012
Quantitation of meat quality by mass spectrometry techniques
Tor M1, Muñoz R1, Vilaró F2, Ros-Freixedes R1, Pena RN1, Estany J1
1Department
2
de Producció Animal, Universitat de Lleida, 25198 Lleida, Spain
Serveis Cientificotècnics, Universitat de Lleida, 25198 Lleida, Spain
In recent decades, the analysis of food composition has been an area of growing
interest due to a strong demand by consumers for higher quality food products.
Moreover, there is a clear interest in exploring the physiological and genetic
mechanisms that regulate the production efficiency and quality of animal products.
This has raised the demand for detailed and reliable information on various
physiological processes in animals, which implies the need for diligent massive
analytical determinations. In this context, mass spectrometry (MS) has emerged as an
efficient technique that can provide various solutions with many applications in the
field of animal production. For instance, regarding fat quality analysis, the selective
ability of a Micromass ZMD 2000 MS apparatus coupled to a Waters Alliance 2690
(Milford, MA, USA) allows quantitative fatty acid analysis without a chromatographic
separation step. This reduces instrumental analysis to less than one minute per
sample. In a practical situation of oleic acid determination in muscle, we have achieved
detection and quantification levels below 5 and 15 µg/mL, respectively. Thus, this
method can be used in meat samples of less than 1 g. On the other hand, in the area of
meat quality analysis, a UPLC Acquity equipment with binary pump, coupled to a triple
quadrupole mass spectrometer TQD (Waters, Millford, MA, USA), equipped with a
column Acquity UPLC BEH Amide 1.7 μm of 2.1 × 150mm, has been used to determine
the amino acid content in meat, including the simultaneous quantification of
isoleucine, leucine, methionine, valine, proline, phenylalanine, and hydroxyproline,
from a muscle hydrolyzate. No prior derivatization of amino acids is needed. Using this
technique in the context of a selection experiment in swine, we showed that no
relevant correlated changes on the collagen content to selection for IMF or lean
content are expected.