Differentiation of pork (Sus scrofa domesticus) and wild boar (Sus scrofa) meat using 1H NMR spectroscopy and MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry

Abstract

The term ‘wild’ is a premium descriptor for food, often leading consumers to accept higher prices. This financial allure can encourage fraudsters to mislabel or substitute game meat with cheaper domestic pork. This study aimed to use a non-targeted ¹H NMR spectroscopy and/or MALDI-ToF–MS analysis, coupled with multivariate statistics, to distinguish between wild boar (Sus scrofa) and pork (Sus scrofa domesticus) meat. To accomplish this, we collected meat of wild boar, pork, and their processed versions for the analyses of ¹H NMR-based metabolomics (polar and apolar phases; 72 samples) and MALDI-ToF–MS-based proteomics (122 samples). Multivariate data analyses (PCA and OPLS-DA) revealed that pork meat showed higher levels of triglycerides and higher concentrations of certain metabolites such as carnosine, creatine and lactate. Conversely, wild boar meat contained higher levels of n-3 fatty acids (FA), polyunsaturated FA and exhibited higher concentrations of specific amino acids like glutamine and alanine. Additionally, we identified fumaric acid and malic acid as distinctive markers for wild boar meat. Our MALDI-ToF–MS analyses also enabled us to differentiate between wild boar and pork meat. However, when it comes to processed meat, the distinctions became blurred, making it impossible to clearly separate wild boar and pork processed meat. Furthermore, data fusion of ¹H NMR and MALDI-ToF–MS was applied to provide more accurate knowledge about the differentiation of wild boar and pork meat.