Have you ever been in a hotel or restaurant and doubted whether the fish, seafood, chicken, mutton or any meat that you eat is authentic and real?

Well, a hotel owner himself had a doubt if his vendor was giving authentic goat meat. He sent the meat for testing to make sure it was real goat meat or something else.

My name is Praveen, a scientist at AMMAGENOMICS Lab in Chennai. When I touched the meat that was sent for testing, it was tender and soft and so I had no doubt and felt it was real goat meat. I was very confident because my neighbor in my hometown was a goat vendor so was accustomed to seeing goat meat.

I did DNA Genetic Testing using the PCR method and checked the results. The sample showed a negative signal for the goat. So, I checked whether it was sheep or chicken, which turned out negative for both. Lastly, I checked for beef and was shocked as it turned out to be 100% positive for beef. This was a shock for all my colleagues at work as they love eating meat.

I know through my friends that goat meat is Rs. 900 per kg and a young calf is only Rs. 500 per kg. Since the calf meat is soft and tender, they sell this beef meat as goat meat. Due to heavy salt, masala spices and artificial flavors that are added to the meat in the restaurants, customers are fooled with fake meat.

Like this restaurant owner, customers and hoteliers must ensure the meat or fish are all authentic by testing it. Also, the customers should insist the hotel owner serves only tested meat. Testing and then selling the meat will give trust to the customers and increase their business too.

AMMAGENOMICS Food Testing Lab offers testing of all kinds of food and food products and gives results in a quick turnaround time of four to five hours. This helps the customers to know the test results quickly.