FoodChain ID - Your competent partner for accredited A1/A2 SNP genotyping tests

FoodChain ID offers an accredited, Real Time PCR-based A1/A2 SNP genotyping test. Ear punch samples, hair or other tissue samples can be sent to us as test material. 

Through mutations, different variants of beta-casein have arisen throughout the history of cattle. Cattle of European origin possess 13 different alleles of the beta-casein gene. The beta-caseins A1 and A2 are by far the most common variants in our cattle. The A1/A2 alleles differ only by a point mutation. This leads to the fact that during the digestion of A1 beta-casein in the human gastrointestinal tract the bioactive peptide BCM-7 (beta-casomorphin 7) is split off, but not in A2 beta-casein. 

Whether this fact has an impact on human health is still not conclusively determined. The distribution of A1/A2 alleles depends on the breed, thus drinking milk from non-selected herds has a mixture of A1 and A2 beta-caseins.

Some dairies recommend their contract farmers to rebreed their herds to a homozygous A2 genotype, a corresponding "A2 milk" is partly already marketed, although the share in Europe is very low.