DIRECT-DETECTION OF VIABLE BACTERIA, MOLDS, AND YEASTS BY REVERSE-TRANSCRIPTASE PCR IN CONTAMINATED MILK SAMPLES AFTER HEAT-TREATMENT

A fast, sensitive, and target contaminant-modulable method was develop ed to detect viable bacteria, molds, and yeasts after heat treatment. By reverse transcriptase PCR with elongation factor gene (EF-Tu or EF- 1 alpha)-specific primers, the detection level was 10 cells ml of milk (-1). The simplicity and rapidity (4 h) of the procedure suggests that this method may be easily transposable to other foods and other conta minants.