A Genotyping Method for Detecting Foreign Buffalo Material in Mozzarella di Bufala Campana Cheese Using Allele-Specific- and Single-Tube Heminested-Polymerase Chain Reaction

Mozzarella di Bufala Campana (MdBC) cheese is a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) product that is important for the economy and cultural heritage of the Campania region. Food fraud can undermine consumers' trust in this dairy product and harm the livelihood of local producers. The current methods for detecting adulteration in MdBC cheese due to the use of buffalo material from foreign countries could exhibit limitations associated with the required use of expensive equipment, time-consuming procedures, and specialized personnel. To address these limits here, we propose a rapid, reliable, and cost-effective genotyping method that can detect foreign buffalo milk in a counterpart from the PDO area and in MdBC cheese, ensuring the quality and authenticity of the latter dairy product. This method is based on dedicated allele-specific and single-tube heminested polymerase chain reaction procedures. By using allele-specific primers that are designed to detect the nucleotide g.472G>C mutation of the CSN1S1Bbt allele, we distinguished an amplicon of 330 bp in the amplification product of DNA when extracted from milk and cheese, which is specific to the material originating from foreign countries. By spiking foreign milk samples with known amounts of the counterpart from the PDO area, the sensitivity of this assay was determined to be 0.01% v/v foreign to PDO milk. Based on a rough estimate of its simplicity, reliability, and cost, this method could be a valuable tool for identifying adulterated buffalo PDO dairy products.