Valutazioni sanitarie e qualitative del granello di riso prodotto con agrotecnica convenzionale e biologica

rganic farming (or nature farming) is gaining much attention from the public because of the environmental concern and the interest in food safety aspects. Due to the lack of information about yielding performance of this farming method, research is actively underway to gain data related to the performance of Italian rice varieties to nature farming, respect to conventional culture. The objective of the present study was the evaluation of the product of two Italian cultivars "Baldo" and "Loto" grown during the very hot season 2003, with special regard to fungal contamination and alteration in the caryopsis protein profile, when cultivated under conventional and organic farming procedures. The two cultivars showed differences in the percentage of grain contamination depending both from the genotype and the agricultural practice. No differences were found in the rate of fungal attack to the caryopsis. Furthermore, no alterations were detected in the peptide profile of any of the storage protein classes in both cultivars.