IMMUNOLOGICAL FAST PROOF OF FUSARIUM IN G RAIN

Described is the possibility of recognising fusarium stress on grain o n the basis of extracellular polysaccharide (EPS). The immunological p roof of EPS can follow either with an ELISA (analysis time approx. 5 h ours) or by latex agglutination technology (analysis time approx. 20 m inutes).The testing systems were not susceptible to cross reactions in the case of the most significant field and storage fungi. All tested fusarium strains provided, on the other hand, adequate positive reacti ons. The EPS production could be influenced by physical and chemical p arameters such as the a(w) value and pH value of the growth medium. Re sulting from this is the necessity to test different food as substrate for developing EPS. The advantages of the evidence of EPS compared wi th culture methods, hand bonification and other indirect methods are d iscussed.