Development of analytical systems based on real-time PCR for Triticum species-specific detection and quantitation of bread wheat contamination in semolina and pasta

Abstract

The cereal composition of specific foods is always a key factor in the quality and safety of the final product. It is important to introduce new control methods for certain special foods, such as those for coeliac consumers, where the contamination of different cereal species must be accurately determined. Moreover, pasta made from durum wheat is considered superior in several qualitative aspects to that manufactured with bread wheat or a mixture of the two species. This work has been directed toward the development of analytical systems for the qualitative and quantitative detection of specific cereals in food. More specifically, the primary aim of this work has been to develop analytical tools based on end-point and real-time PCR to detect the presence of Triticum species in flour and food. Furthermore, qualitative and quantitative PCR-based methods are proposed to detect hexaploid wheat adulteration in pasta.