Development of Real Time PCR Meat detection kits and technology market transfer

• Autor(a) principal: Velasques, Tiago Miguel Frasco
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/55074
• topic: Real Time PCR; kit; optimization; marketing; food; fraud; Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia Química

In recent years, food fraud cases have been increasing in Europe and, consequently, the consumer trust over the food sector quality have been decreasing. Thus, the existence of reliable, fast and low-cost methods to detect criminal adulteration of food becomes crucial. In this thesis, four meat detection kits to detect chicken, turkey, horse and swine DNA in food matrices were developed, using Real Time PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) technique. The development was done through optimization of the four BIOPREMIER Real Time PCR detection kits produced and commercialized by BPMR. The optimization consisted in several Real Time PCR assays with different concentration of some reagents and different PCR programs in order to find the optimal conditions to the detection of each target. After the optimization, validation tests were performed to authenticate the newly created kits. These tests assessed that the performance of all four kits increased with specificity and inclusivity indicators greater than 98% and the Limit of Detection varying between 1pg and 10pg, Besides the development of the kits, it was done a market analysis and designed a transfer to market strategy. The increasing concern for food safety and the competing technologies are factors that impact the commercialization of the kits. The target market are small or medium laboratories of food analysis, located in the EU, with Real Time PCR thermal ccycler with FAM and ROX channels. The marketing and business plan allowed the kits implementation in the market, creating the SUPREME Real Time PCR detection kit product line. In summary, the SUPREME Real Time PCR detection kits value proposition consists in the delivery of low-cost, quick and qualitative tests to detect meat in food samples.