Abstract:
Gelatin is a colourless, tasteless biopolymer protein derived from animals’
tissue and carcass. It has various commercial applications in pharmaceutical,
cosmetics and food industry. Common gelatin origins are bovine, porcine
and marine animals. Ethnic and religious ‘believes are attached with gelatin
sources for Muslims and Jews, where halal authenticity is crucial for
Muslims. Gelatin derived from porcine, and bovine have similar physical
appearance and taste and identification of these gelatin source origin are
challenging. Pakistan is a dominant Muslim population country, and several
imported products are displayed in supermarkets for consumers, which are
not labelled with the source of gelatin. Therefore, it is necessary to analyse
the authenticity of products circulating in local market. In this study, 16
samples of local and international brands were collected from leading
departmental stores of different parts of Lahore city. Gelatin from
commercial samples were extracted with cold acetone method, separated
with centrifuge and stored at -20°C. The separated gelatin was again
dissolved in water for characterization studies. FTIR was used with the
combination of chemometrics. The results showed characteristic peaks in
two windows of 1470–1475 cm−1 and 1444–1450 cm−1. The further
identification of all samples was done by ELISA. This study indicated doubts
of adulteration in three imported products with no-halal logo printed, while
one product showed the poultry source of chicken skin. All these four
products were edible food products.
