Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
JOURNAL OF FOOD SAFETY, cilt.27, sa.1, ss.56-65, 2007 (SCI-Expanded)
Spinal cord and brain tissues have the highest importance in the transfer of bovine spongiform encephalopathy to humans. The European Union issued the complete removal of spinal cord and brain tissues from meat products. In Turkey, regulation on meat products is applied by government veterinarians. But there are some questions on the effective application of the regulation, especially in some private slaughterhouses. This study was designed to reveal the mixing of these tissues to meat products sold in the Akdeniz region of Turkey. For this purpose, a total of 471 meat product samples were tested. Two semiquantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits (Ridascreen Risk Material and Risk Material 10/5 [R-biofarm GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany]), which detect glial fibrillary acidic protein as marker, were used. In the tests, standard controls 0, 0.2, 1.0 and 2.0%, and 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.5% were practiced, respectively. Of the 220 processed meat sampled, 33 samples (15.0%) gave an optical density (OD) equal to or higher than standard 0.2%. Of the 251 raw meat sampled, 54 samples (21.51%) gave an OD equal to or higher than standard 0.1%. It was concluded that mixing of central nervous system tissue to the meat products still happens, and more effective control measurements need to be developed and applied in Turkey.