This document specifies a method for the taxonomic identification of a single bivalve or piece of bivalve to the genus or species level using DNA barcoding. It allows the identification of a large number of commercially important bivalve species.
This method was validated on raw mussels. Laboratory experience indicates additional applicability to processed bivalve products, e.g. cold smoked, hot smoked, salted, frozen, cooked, fried, and deep-fried samples.
The described method is usually unsuitable for the analysis of highly processed foods, e.g. tins of mussels, with highly degraded DNA where the fragment lengths are not sufficient for amplification of the target. Furthermore, it is not applicable for complex seafood products containing mixtures of two or more bivalve species.
The identification of bivalve species is carried out by PCR amplification of a segment of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene, followed by sequencing of the PCR products and subsequent sequence comparison with entries in databases.