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Food and Life
Korean Society for Food Science of Animal Resources

Food Life

eISSN: 2714-0865

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5851/fl.2600028

Research Article

Preliminary Evaluation of Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotopes for Discriminating Korean Native Black Goat Meat from Australian Boer Goat Meat

Jaehoon Baek1, Junyoung Park1, Sumin Song1, Huilin Cheng1, Hyun-Jun Kim2, Gap-Don Kim1,2,3,*
1Graduate School of International Agricultural Technology, Seoul National University, Pyeongchang 25354, Korea.
2Institutes of Green Bio Science & Technology, Seoul National University, Pyeongchang 25354, Korea.
3Research Institute of Agriculture & Life Science, Seoul National University, Pyeongchang 25354, Korea.
*Corresponding Author: Gap-Don Kim, Graduate School of International Agricultural Technology, Seoul National University, Pyeongchang 25354, Korea, Republic of. Phone: +82333395778. E-mail: gapdonkim@snu.ac.kr.

© Copyright 2026 Korean Society for Food Science of Animal Resources. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Aug 30, 2026; Revised: Sep 28, 2026; Accepted: Oct 12, 2026

Published Online: Oct 19, 2026

Abstract

This study evaluated the potential of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope profiles for discriminating Korean native black goat (KNBG) meat from Australian Boer goat (AG) meat. Longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscles from KNBG and AG (n = 5 per group) were analyzed for Total carbon (C), δ¹³C, Total nitrogen (N), and δ¹⁵N using an elemental analyzer–isotope ratio mass spectrometry. KNBG showed significantly higher Total C and δ¹³C values but lower Total N and δ¹⁵N values than AG (adjusted p < 0.05). Principal component analysis clearly separated the two groups along PC1, which explained 82.8% of the total variance. Within this preliminary dataset (n = 5 per group), linear discriminant analysis using δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N correctly classified all samples under leave-one-out cross-validation. These results provide preliminary evidence that carbon and nitrogen stable isotope profiles may be useful for discriminating KNBG from AG meat. However, larger and more diverse sample sets and independent validation are required to establish a robust origin authentication approach.

Keywords: authentication; goat meat; geographical origin; stable isotope ratio; multivariate analysis