Assessment of hygienic conditions of recreational facility restrooms: an integrated approach.

Introduction: Microbiological quality of recreational environments included restrooms, is generally assessed by water and surface monitoring. In this study, an environmental monitoring, conducted in spring, of swimming pool restrooms of a recreation center located in the Marche region has been carried out. Seven water samples and seven surface swabs were collected.

Validation and application of a quantitative real-time PCR assay to detect common wheat adulteration of durum wheat for pasta production.

Pasta is the Italian product par excellence and it is now popular worldwide. Pasta of a superior quality is made with pure durum wheat. In Italy, addition of Triticum aestivum (common wheat) during manufacturing is not allowed and, without adequate labeling, its presence is considered an adulteration.

Validation according to ISO/TS 12869:2012 of a molecular method for the isolation and quantification of Legionella spp. in water.

The aim of the present work was to validate the performances of a new molecular method comprehensive of water sample filtration, DNA extraction and Real-Time PCR for the quantification of Legionella spp. in clear water samples, in accordance with the recent ISO Technical Specification 12869:2012. All criteria and requirements were verified considering inclusivity and exclusivity, check of the calibration function, limit of detection and limit of quantification, recovery calculation, robustness and uncertainty of the entire method.