Analysis of authorized and unauthorized tissue in hamburger products with general and specific staining

Abstract

Processed foods derived from animals, such as hamburgers, play a significant role in diets worldwide. According to the National Standard, hematoxylin-eosin staining is utilized to identify unauthorized tissues within meat products. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of specific staining techniques against general staining methods in detecting such unauthorized tissues. Twenty hamburger samples were collected from fourteen different food production facilities, with three 5 mm tissue samples extracted from each product and placed in a 10% buffered formalin solution. Subsequently, the process of tissue preparation, creation of paraffin blocks, and sectioning was carried out, followed by staining the prepared sections with Hematoxylin & Eosin, Verhoef-Van Gieson, Mason’s trichrome, and PAS-Alcian blue stains for examination under a light microscope. A total of 240 tissue slides were prepared for analysis. Identified non-unauthorized tissues included salivary glands, while authorized tissues included joint cartilage, bone, skeletal muscle, blood vessels, connective tissue, fat, soy, and plant tissue. The findings indicate that employing specific staining techniques enables more accurate, reliable, and faster identification of tissues in hamburger products. The results suggest that integrating special staining with general staining improves detection capability. The images generated from this research serve as a useful reference for identifying unauthorized tissues in hamburgers.

Keywords

• histology
• hamburger
• authorized and unauthorized tissue