Received for review January 5, 2004. Accepted August 6, 2004. This work was supported by EU Project DNA-TRACK (Contract QLK1- 2000-01658) "Traceability of DNA fragments throughout the food chain by DNA/PNA techniques. Application to novel foods", Coordinator Prof. Nelson Marmiroli; Italian Project MIUR COFIN2000 (Contract EC1139/ 98) "Traceability of DNA and proteins fragments through the food and feed chain with methods suitable for application to voluntary labeling", Coordinator Prof. Nelson Marmiroli; Italian Project MIUR "Genomics and Proteomics application to the assessment of quality and safety in food production", Coordinator Dr. Marina Miraglia.

Abstract:

The presence of DNA in foodstuffs derived from or containing genetically modified organisms (GMO) is the basic requirement for labeling of GMO foods in Council Directive 2001/18/CE (Off. J. Eur. Communities 2001, L1 06/2). In this work, four different methods for DNA extraction were evaluated and compared. To rank the different methods, the quality and quantity of DNA extracted from standards, containing known percentages of GMO material and from different food products, were considered. The food products analyzed derived from both soybean and maize and were chosen on the basis of the mechanical, technological, and chemical treatment they had been subjected to during processing. Degree of DNA degradation at various stages of food production was evaluated through the amplification of different DNA fragments belonging to the endogenous genes of both maize and soybean. Genomic DNA was extracted from Roundup Ready soybean and maize MON810 standard flours, according to four different methods, and quantified by real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), with the aim of determining the influence of the extraction methods on the DNA quantification through real-time PCR.

Keywords: Food traceability; GMO; DNA extraction; DNA degradation; real-time PCR

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