Discrimination of raw material species in mixed seafood products (surimi) using the next generation sequencing method

Abstract The increased international trade and worldwide consumption of seafood has increased the possibility of economic fraud. Particularly, the increased development of processed seafood has restricted the application of classical identification methods. DNA matabarcoding is a rapid method for identification of multiple species from an environmental sample. In this study, two universal markers were designed in the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I region, and the metabarcoding analysis of processed seafood products was done using these markers. A total of 11 seafood products were analyzed, and 56 and 32 species within 36 families between them were identified by each primer set, respectively. Comparing the identified species with each primer set, only 12.8% of the species were identified by both primer sets. In addition, the species on the label when identified were not observed in some products. Although the analysis was done on the same gene region, different results can be obtained according to the primer set. Based on these results, it is advantageous to use more than one primer set to identify various species from seafood products using DNA metabarcoding analysis.