Identification of Gelatin Sources in Commercial Products from Super Markets

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.