Intended use:

Qualitative detection and identification of Alicyclobacillus spp., Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius and Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris (Biorad, Agilent Mx3005P™, Rotorgene™).

General information:

Alicyclobacillus is a gram-positive, strictly aerobic, acidophilic and thermophilic spoilage bacteria, especially important for the fruit juice industry, where it has been shown to produce high amounts of guaiacol imparting offflavors to fruit juices. Alicyclobacillus is of special interest to the fruit juice canning industry because common pasteurization techniques do not deactivate the spores. Therefore early screening of Alicyclobacillus is very important for the industry since contamination can lead to considerable loss of quality and subsequently to economic losses for the producers. Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris is considered the most important spoilage species within the Alicyclobacillus genera, but other e.g. Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius have als been isolated from spoiled products. General culture methods take 10-12 days to detect the presence of Alicyclobacillus species in samples, further 24h to confirm guaiacol production and identification of isolates require even longer. To overcome this difficulty, GEN-IAL developed a multiplex real-time PCR method to detect and differentiate Alicyclobacillus species in fruit juices and concentrates much more earlier.