Wild ungulate slaughtering and meat inspection.

The different phases of production of farmed and hunted wild game fresh meat are described. The importance of reducing the stress resulting from handling procedures (capture, restraint, transport) before the slaughtering of animals is highlighted, due to its adverse effects on meat quality. The hygienic and animal welfare criteria to be adopted in the slaughtering of wild game are described. The importance of carcass inspection immediately after slaughtering is stated, so that meat can be destined for human consumption. Possible alterations occurring in fresh and refrigerated meat, that are capable of compromising its consumability, are presented.

Use of duplex polymerase chain reaction (duplex-PCR) technique to identify bovine and water buffalo milk used in making mozzarella cheese.

Molecular biology techniques have been used for species identification in food of animal origin in relatively recent years. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based method, the multiplex PCR, was recently applied to species identification in meat and meat products. It allows co-amplification of separate regions of a single gene or specific fragments, each typical of a different animal species in a single PCR reaction, using different pairs of primers in the same reaction mix. In the present paper, the duplex-PCR technique is proposed to identify bovine and water buffalo DNA in a single PCR assay in milk and mozzarella cheese (a typical Italian cheese, originally made from pure water buffalo milk). Because of its lower cost, undeclared bovine milk is added to water buffalo milk for making different kinds of mozzarella cheese. The results of this experiment indicate the applicability of this method, which showed an absolute specificity for the two species and a high sensitivity even down to low DNA concentrations (1 pg). In bovine and water buffalo mixtures of both milk and mozzarella cheese, the minimum concentration tested was 1% of bovine in water buffalo milk and water buffalo in bovine milk. The importance of the somatic cell content in raw milk is also discussed with special reference to the evaluation of mixtures (milk or cheese) of the two species.

Fluorometric determination of glycerol in wine--comparison with other known procedures.

The glycerol content of 6 wines was evaluated by using 3 different preliminary treatments and, subsequently, a variety of instrumental and chemical procedures (fluorometric, vapor phase chromatography of trimethylsilyl derivatives, volumetric, and colorimetric). The data showed that all these procedures are applicable; in particular, the fluorometric procedure, which has not been used until now, provides average recoveries of added glycerol ranging from 99.3 to 100.9%, with relative standard deviations ranging from 2.9 to 3.2%. Vapor phase chromatography provides average recoveries of added glycerol ranging from 99.8 to 100.1%, with relative standard deviations ranging from 1.0 to 2.7%. Therefore, the fluorometric procedure appears especially useful for reliable routine analyses, because it is specific for glycerol and provides results that are unaffected by preliminary treatment. Thus it allows analysis of diluted wine, when the sugar content does not exceed 5 g/L; sweet wines must undergo an ion exchange pretreatment.

[Riboflavin content of commercial samples of alimentary pastes (author's transl)]. / Contenuto di riboglavina in una serie di campioni di paste alimentari del commercio

By fluorometric investigation on 42 commercial samples of alimentary pastes, it was established that unlawful custom of colouring these food products with riboflavin is no more performed; in fact, the riboflavin content of the sample examined by use was rather uniform and of the same order of that naturally occurring in these products.