Detection of the giant mealworm (Zophobas atratus) in food and feed by single copy gene based real time PCR
2025
Zagon, Jutta | Winter, Ralf | Winkel, Matthias | Garino, Cristiano
A novel real time PCR protocol was developed for the detection of Zophobas atratus (syn. Zophobas morio), the giant mealworm or ‘superworm’, in food or feed. Together with Tenebrio molitor (yellow mealworm) and Alphitobius diaperinus (lesser mealworm), Z. atratus is one of the three most important darkling beetles raised in mass production, but it is only authorised in EU for pet food. The study demonstrates that the single copy gene-based method is highly specific and detects as low as about 10 copies, respectively 5 pg of Zophobas DNA. Investigations with progressively processed material revealed a reliable identification of 0.1 % (w/w) Z. atratus in a model feed even in high background of 10–20 % (w/w) of the other two economic relevant Tenebrionids, thus proving an excellent selectivity of the method. Finally, the practical applicability was shown with real commercial food products. For this purpose, the protocol was combined with two previously published single copy methods for the detection of T. molitor and A. diaperinus to test a multiplex approach for the simultaneous detection of all three targets. The identification of the target species Z. atratus posed no problem down to 0.1 % (w/w), or 100 ppm, even in the presence of high amounts of yellow and/or lesser mealworm in a feed matrix.
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