Proceedings of the XLV Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics - SIGA Annual Congress

Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy - 26/29 September, 2001

ISBN 88-900622-1-5

Poster Abstract

PCR-BASED ANALITYCAL METHODS FOR CEREAL COMPONENT DETECTION IN RAW MATERIALS AND FOOD

TERZI V., TUDISCO R., CAVALLERO A.

Istituto Sperimentale per la Cerealicoltura, Via S. Protaso, 302, 29017 Fiorenzuola d’Arda, Piacenza, Italia

v.terzi@iol.it

cereals, analytical methods, PCR

The recent progress of food legislative regulation in EU and in Italy are directed toward the need to guarantee consumers from both a microbiological and quality point of view. Labelling of food products is required for some quality parameters, as the ingredient composition and GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) content. The cereal composition of specific food is always a key factor for the quality of the final product, therefore the regulations must protect the consumers by setting limits in the composition. Examples are the incorporation of bread wheat in pasta or the percentage of barley malt in the wort used by the beer industry. Moreover, unexpected and undeclared wheat addition to cereal food products pose a serious hazard to people suffering from wheat intolerance, such as coeliac disease.

The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) has been found to be appropriate for the analysis of several microbiological and qualitative characteristics of food: examples of application of PCR end point for detection of some relevant aspects of food quality are available.

The aim of this work was directed toward the development of PCR-based analytical systems for the qualitative and quantitive detection of specific cereal components in raw materials and food. Target sequences specific for different cereals were identified and primers were designed to be applied in a PCR reaction. Detection methods were developed for the identification of bread and durum wheat, barley, rice, oat and rye. The PCR systems were applied to the cereal detection in raw materials, in food samples and in animal feed. Starting from these results, the perspectives comprise the development of real time PCR systems for the quantitative detection of the different cereal component and the validation of some of these systems through ring-test organization.