title: Sensitive and specific detection of pine nut (Pinus spp.) by real-time PCR in complex food products.
abstract: Pine nuts are a known source of food allergens and several cases of adverse immunological reaction after ingestion have been reported. To protect allergic consumers, methods to unequivocally detect the presence of pine nuts in complex matrices must be developed. A Taqman-based real time PCR method for the detection of Pinus spp. was set up. A homemade pesto spiked at known concentration of pine nut powder was used as model food. Moreover, DNA was purified from commercial foods declaring or not the presence of pine nuts. The method displayed a very high efficiency and specificity for the genus Pinus. The intrinsic LOD was 1pg of DNA, while the practical LOD evaluated on model foods was 0.1ppm of pine nuts powder, the lowest ever registered for the detection of food allergens via real-time PCR. Finally, the declared presence/absence of pine nut in commercial foods was confirmed.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze del Farmaco & Drug and Food Biotechnology (DFB) Center, Università del Piemonte Orientale "A. Avogadro", largo Donegani 2, 28100 Novara, Italy. Electronic address: garino@unipmn.it.
authors.forename: Cristiano
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Garino
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Scienze delle Produzioni Alimentari (ISPA)-CNR, Via Prov.le Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy.
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Paolis
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze del Farmaco & Drug and Food Biotechnology (DFB) Center, Università del Piemonte Orientale "A. Avogadro", largo Donegani 2, 28100 Novara, Italy.
authors.forename: Jean Daniel
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Coïsson
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d'Aosta, SC Controllo Alimenti & Igiene delle Produzioni, via Bologna 148, 10154 Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniela Manila
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Bianchi
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte, Liguria e Valle d'Aosta, SC Controllo Alimenti & Igiene delle Produzioni, via Bologna 148, 10154 Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Decastelli
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze del Farmaco & Drug and Food Biotechnology (DFB) Center, Università del Piemonte Orientale "A. Avogadro", largo Donegani 2, 28100 Novara, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Arlorio
mesh_terms: D000485:Allergens / Q000276:immunology; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000276:immunology; D009754:Nuts / Q000737:chemistry*; D028223:Pinus / Q000737:chemistry*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens
keywords: Detection; Food allergy; Pine nut; Pinus spp.; Real time PCR