INTRODUCTION The use of soybean proteins as meat extenders has spread significantly due to the interesting nutritional and functional properties that are present in soybean proteins. Together with these properties, health and economical reasons are the major causes for the addition of soybean proteins to meat products. Nevertheless, despite the good properties associated to soybean proteins, there are many countries in which the addition of these proteins is forbidden or in which the addition of soybean proteins is allowed up to a certain extent. The consumption of meat products containing soy proteins fraudulently can trigger allergic reactions in some individuals (Savage et al., 2010). Thus, the need of analytical methods enabling the detection of added soybean proteins in meat products is obvious. Microscopic, electrophoretic, immunologic, and chromatographic methods are the most widely used for this purpose (Belloque et al., 2002). PCR-based detection of allergens has become increasingly popular. A major advantage in the employment of PCR-based methods lies in the high specificity of the reaction. Additionally, proteins in foods that have been harshly processed, might not be detectable in the classical ELISA based approach for example, while the target DNA might be nevertheless efficiently extracted under such denaturing conditions. Another advantage that the PCR holds out against the classical protein- Evaluation of Molecular Methods to Identify Counterfeits With Soy in Different Meat Products Oana REGET, Alexandra TĂBĂRAN * , Sorin Daniel DAN, Ionuţ CORDIŞ, Dana Liana PUSTA, Marian MIHAIU Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Mănăştur Street, no.3/5, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Corresponding author: lapusan_alexandra@yahoo.com Bulletin UASVM Veterinary Medicine 72(1) / 2015, Print ISSN 1843-5270; Electronic ISSN 1843-5378 DOI:10.15835/buasvmcn-vm: 11097 Abstract Soybean proteins are vegetal sources used currently in the meat product industry in order to increase the nutritional composition and to obtain products with characteristic sensorial properties. Due to the lower price compared to the animal origin proteins, these soybean extracts are frequently used as additives and not mentioned on the product’s label. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of the soybean DNA in meat products marketed on the regional area studied. Also, we wanted to assess if the soybean adding was genetically modified organism. The material chosen for this study was represented by 82 meat product samples, marleted on a regional area. The technique chosen for the DNA identification was the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with specific primers for soybean lectin protein (LEC1) and EPSPS–B1 gene for genetically modified soybean. Our study showed that from the total amount of samples examined 6.09% (n=5) were found positive for soybean DNA, without being mentioned on the product’s label. No sample was found positive for genetically modified soybean protein adding in the meat products examined. We concluded that there is a relatively high risk of forgeries by soy protein adding in the meat products marketed in the regional area investigated. We recommend the further testing of meat products by the competent authorities in order to identify through standardize methods the genetically modified soybean presence. Keywords: DNA, genetically modified soybean.