Estudo comparativo entre as técnicas de eletroforese em gel de poliacrilamida ureia-page e lab-on-a-chip para a detecção de fraude do leite de cabra pela adição de leite bovino

Abstract

Milk is a food of great relevance in human nutrition. In addition, among the different food industries in Brazil, the dairy industry is one of the economically expressive. Cow's milk was be substituted for goat‟s milk in any situation. The goat‟s milk presents better digestibility and low allergenic potential. However, it is common adulteration of goat milk with cow‟s milk. Some factors like low income of goat milk and the lower price of cow‟s milk contribute for this kind of fraud. The present study aimed to evaluate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis techniques in presence of urea (UREA-PAGE) and microfluidic lab–on–a–chip, in order to characterize the protein profile of milk in the different species goat and cow. In addition, establish faster and efficient techniques for fraud detection in goat‟s milk. The fraud detection in goat‟s milk by the addition of cow milk was analyzed using the electrophoretic profiles of the proteins by the polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis methods UREA–PAGE and microfluidic lab-on-a-chip electrophoresis. Both studded methods showed the αs1 – casein bovine as a marked for this fraud detection. The UREA–PAGE techniques detected the bovine‟s milk αs1- casein from 2% of cow milk added to caprine milk. However lab-on–a-chip technique detected bovine‟s milk αs1- casein from 20% of addition. The microfluidic electrophoresis in microchip allowed the separation of the milk‟s proteins from the both species tracing their respective electrophoretic profiles with fast results availability; this method has great relevance in milk‟s fraud investigations in routine labs. The use of lab-on-a-chip has resulted in the rapid procedures as the run time is about four hours. Due to the need for automated, fast and efficient techniques to attend the dairy industry and the regulatory agencies request, it‟s necessary the development of the lab-on-a–chip technique in order to improve their performance and applicability.