Metabolic profiling to detect different forms of beef fraud using rapid evaporative ionisation mass spectrometry (REIMS)

This study investigates the use of rapid evaporative ionization mass spectrometry (REIMS) to detect beef fraud, specifically focusing on differentiating organic from conventional beef and identifying different meat cuts. Using samples from various cattle carcass regions (neck, rump, shin) from Ireland and the UK, REIMS analysis generated lipidomic data, which was then used to create PCA-LDA models. The production system model differentiated organic and conventional beef with 84% accuracy, while the muscle type model identified meat cuts with 98% accuracy. REIMS offers significant advantages over existing methods like stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry (SIRA), including faster analysis times and lower costs.

Kelsey Robson, Nicholas Birse, Olivier Chevallier, Christopher Elliott