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For centuries, ancient grains fed populations, but due to their low yield, they were abandoned and replaced by high-yielding species. However, currently, there is a renewed interest in ancient wheat and pseudocereal grains from consumers, farmers, and manufacturers. Ancient wheat such as einkorn, emmer, spelt, and Kamut R , are being reintegrated because of their low fertilizer input, high adaptability and important genetic diversity. New trends in pseudocereal products are also emerging, and they are mostly appreciated for their nutritional outcomes, particularly by the gluten-free market. Toward healthier lifestyle, ancient grains-based foodstuffs are a growing business and their industrialization is taking 2 pathways, either as a raw ingredient or a functional ingredient. This paper deals with these grain characteristics by focusing on the compositional profile and the technological potential.

Hulled, or ancient, wheats were the earliest domesticated wheats by mankind and the ancestors of current wheats. Their cultivation drastically decreased during the 1960s; however, the increasing demand for a healthy and equilibrated diet led to rediscovering these grains. Our aim was to use a non-targeted metabolomic approach to discriminate and characterize similarities and differences between ancient Triticum varieties. For this purpose, 77 hulled wheat samples from three different varieties were collected: Garfagnana T. turgidum var. dicoccum L. (emmer), ID331 T. monococcum L. (einkorn) and Rouquin T. spelta L. (spelt). The ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF) metabolomics approach highlighted a pronounced sample clustering according to the wheat variety, with an excellent predictability (Q2), for all the models built. Fifteen metabolites were tentatively identified based on accurate masses, isotopic pattern, and product ion spectra. Among these, alkylresorcinols (ARs) were found to be significantly higher in spelt and emmer, showing different homologue composition. Furthermore, phosphatidylcholines (PC) and lysophosphatidylcholines (lysoPC) levels were higher in einkorn variety. The results obtained in this study confirmed the importance of ARs as markers to distinguish between Triticum species and revealed their values as cultivar markers, being not affected by the environmental influences.

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Recent studies show that the lipid transfer protein (LTP), the major Rosaceae allergen in patients not sensitized to birch pollen, is a largely cross-reacting allergen. Moreover, it is a potentially hazardous allergen due to its stability upon thermal treatment and pepsin digestion. The present study reports 3 cases of rice-induced anaphylaxis in LTP-allergic patients. In vitro inhibition studies, carried out using LTP purified from both rice and apple as well as whole peach extract, show that LTP was the relevant allergen in these patients and demonstrate the cross-reactivity between rice LTP and peach/apple LTP.

European Commission regulation 2073/2005 on the microbiological criteria for food requires that Escherichia coli is monitored as an indicator of hygienic conditions. Since verocytotoxigenic E. coli (VTEC) strains often cause food-borne infections by the consumption of raw food, the Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recommended their monitoring in food as well. In particular, VTEC strains belonging to serogroups such as O26, O103, O111, O145, and O157 are known causative agents of several human outbreaks. Eight real-time PCR methods for the detection of E. coli toxin genes and their variants (stx 1 , stx 2 ), the intimin gene (eae), and five serogroup-specific genes have been proposed by the European Reference Laboratory for VTEC (EURL-VTEC) as a technical specification to the European Normalization Committee (CEN TC275/WG6). Here we applied a "modular approach" to the in-house validation of these PCR methods. The modular approach subdivides an analytical process into separate parts called "modules," which are independently validated based on method performance criteria for a limited set of critical parameters. For the VTEC real-time PCR module, the following parameters are being assessed: specificity, dynamic range, PCR efficiency, and limit of detection (LOD). This study describes the modular approach for the validation of PCR methods to be used in food microbiology, using single-target plasmids as positive controls and showing their applicability with food matrices.Microbial analysis of foodstuffs is an integrated part of the management of microbial safety in the food chain. Standardized detection methods exist, which are based on the growth and isolation of the microorganism of interest and are in general referred to as "classical" culture methods. Based on the general expertise and supported by an international consensus in the field of food microbiology, the current detection methods are harmonized and commonly recognized as the standard detection methods (17). These methods are considered precise, practical, and relatively inexpensive in terms of laboratory consumables and reagents but are rather time-consuming; 3 to 7 days may be required before isolation and characterization, e.g., serotyping of the pathogen, are obtained. Currently, standardized methods exist for the detection of Escherichia coli O157 but not for the top five verocytotoxigenic E. coli (VTEC) serogroups; therefore, the scientific opinion of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) strongly recommended the development and validation of methods for the detection of the top five VTEC serogroups: O26, O103, O111, O145, and O157 (6, 7).During the last decade, several food-borne outbreaks have been reported, e.g., the recent emergency of the E. coli O104:H4 outbreak, and a strong demand for "rapid methods" has risen. The term "rapid" refers especially to the need for a short delay between an emergency alarm due to a potential pathogen outbreak and the outcome an...

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