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Adulteration of goat meat with cheaper meat such as pork has been frequently found. Conventional PCR methods to distinguish goat meat from adulteration are qualitative, which easily produce false‐positive results due to contamination but not adulteration. To address this problem, real‐time PCR based on single‐copy housekeeping genes encoding replication protein A1 was developed for goat meat and pork. By calculating the Ct ratio of goat meat/pork, the goat meat content in a suspected adulteration could be deduced by a good linear correlation (R² = 0.9868) in a range from 5% to 80%. Analysis of the simulated samples of goat meat showed high accuracy with recoveries of 104.91% and 105.00% for the goat meat contents of 40% and 60%, respectively, and coefficient of variations were as low as 9.24% and 9.09%. Thus, the developed assay supplied a useful tool for food regulation authorities to achieve quantitative authentication of goat meat.

BACKGROUND Competitive foods remain prevalent in schools even though the majority of states' laws have addressed this for several years. Whereas updated federal standards take effect during school year 2014-2015, aspects of competitive food regulation will remain relegated to the states and districts and concerns exist about compliance with the federal standards. This study examined compliance provisions codified into state law that focused on incentives, monetary penalties, or contracts which could provide examples for other jurisdictions. METHODS Codified statutory and administrative laws effective as of January 2013 for all 50 states and the District of Columbia were compiled using Boolean searches in Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw. All laws were analyzed by 2 study authors to determine the presence and components of relevant provisions. RESULTS Eighteen states' laws contained compliance mechanisms including financial and/or programmatic incentives (5 states), contract provisions (11 states), and monetary penalties for noncompliance (7 states). Five states' laws contained a combination of approaches. CONCLUSIONS Compliance measures help to strengthen competitive food laws by providing state agencies with an enforcement mechanism. Enforcing such provisions will help to create healthier school environments. This study will provide useful insight for governments at all levels as they implement competitive food laws.

Detection of misuse of peptides and proteins as growth promoters is a major issue for sport and food regulatory agencies. The limitations of current analytical detection strategies for this class of compounds, in combination with their efficacy in growth-promoting effects, make peptide and protein drugs highly susceptible to abuse by either athletes or farmers who seek for products to illicitly enhance muscle growth. Mass spectrometry (MS) for qualitative analysis of peptides and proteins is well-established, particularly due to tremendous efforts in the proteomics community. Similarly, due to advancements in targeted proteomic strategies and the rapid growth of protein-based biopharmaceuticals, MS for quantitative analysis of peptides and proteins is becoming more widely accepted. These continuous advances in MS instrumentation and MS-based methodologies offer enormous opportunities for detection and confirmation of peptides and proteins. Therefore, MS seems to be the method of choice to improve the qualitative and quantitative analysis of peptide and proteins with growth-promoting properties. This review aims to address the opportunities of MS for peptide and protein analysis in veterinary control and sports-doping control with a particular focus on detection of illicit growth promotion. An overview of potential peptide and protein targets, including their amino acid sequence characteristics and current MS-based detection strategies is, therefore, provided. Furthermore, improvements of current and new detection strategies with state-of-the-art MS instrumentation are discussed for qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Since a high intake of trans fatty acids (TFA) has been associated with the increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, food regulation worldwide has been amended with respect to nutrition labeling and health claims on TFA. In the present study, the TFA levels of Korean food products were investigated to assess the regulation effect of TFA labeling. Same Korean food products within 7 different categories were purchased in years 2005 and 2008, and the contents of TFA and lipid and fatty acid composition were investigated. Lipid and TFA contents decreased in all food products manufactured in 2008. TFA levels were 0.01 to 6.88 g/100 g food in 2005, but the levels remarkably decreased to nondetectable level or up to 0.5 g TFA/100 g food in 2008. The foods from 2005 contained a various level of TFA ranging 0.6% to 44.6% of total fatty acids; however, the TFA level significantly decreased in most foods up to 3.8% from year 2008. For TFAs, trans C18:1 levels were greater than trans isomers of C18:2, and the levels in 2005 were significantly reduced in 2008 (P < 0.05). TFA levels at the sn-2 position were up to 48.3% of total fatty acids in 2005, but the level considerably decreased up to 5.4% in 2008. The considerably decreased content of TFA in 2008 suggested that food manufacturers recognized the adverse effect of TFA on human health and followed the compulsory trans fat labeling rule by Korean Food and Drug Administration (KFDA), which started December 2007.

A further 20 commercially available ion exchange and adsorbent resins were screened for their affinities for titratable acid and citrus bitter principles. Two anion exchange resins offer the prospect of simultaneous acid reduction and debittering; two cation exchange and five adsorbent resins were moderate to powerful adsorbers of the bitter principles. The food regulation status of these resins is discussed.