Unmasking Meat Adulteration with Cardboard: Diffraction-Based Detection Supported by Mass Spectrometry and FTIR

A Brazilian operation known as “Weak Meat” or “Weak Flesh” that occurred in 2017, had the objective to investigate whether some enterprises were commercializing rotten, contaminated and/or adulterated meat. In the first stage of this investigation, there was a suspicion about using cardboard to adulterate minced meat, however, no information about it was found at the judge’s ruling. Aiming to develop a diffraction device that could be used in those cases, we used the combination of infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) and mass spectrometry (MS) techniques to understand what changes occurred, and how they impacted the diffraction pattern when minced meat was adulterated with cardboard. The results obtained from the visual inspection of the infrared spectra showed a change in the wavelength range as the cardboard and meat concentrations changed. Through statistical analysis of the spectra obtained via mass spectrometry, we were able to select statistical relevant molecules, also known as markers or biomarkers, for presence of cardboard in samples. Both these results, the change observed through molecules (by MS analysis) and the functional groups (observed in ATR-FTIR analysis), justify not only the alteration in the sample composition but also the changes in the diffraction pattern observed. Thus, through the combination of those results, we were able to understand how these changes affects the diffraction pattern observed in our device.