Research Publications (Food Safety)

Publication date: Available online 9 September 2015

Author(s): Farhana Runa, Ignazio Carbone, Deepak Bhatnagar, Gary A. Payne

Publication date: October 2015
Food and Chemical Toxicology, Volume 84
Author(s): Assunta Raiola, Gian Carlo Tenore, Lara Manyes, Giuseppe Meca, Alberto Ritieni

Fungus-growing termites rely on symbiotic microorganisms to help break down plant material and to obtain nutrients. Their fungal cultivar, Termitomyces, is the main plant degrader and food source for the termites, while gut bacteria complement Termitomyces in the degradation of foodstuffs, fixation of nitrogen, and metabolism of amino acids and sugars.

Research has shown success using clay-based binders to adsorb aflatoxin in animal feeds; however, no adsorbent has been approved for the prevention or treatment of aflatoxicosis. In this study, growth and relative organ weights were evaluated along with a residue analysis for aflatoxin B1 in liver tissue collected from broiler chickens consuming dietary aflatoxin (0, 600, 1200, and 1800 µg/kg) both with and without 0.2% of a calcium bentonite clay additive (TX4).

Aflatoxins (AF) are toxic metabolites primarily produced by molds, Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Contamination of poultry feed with AF is a major concern to the poultry industry due to severe economic losses stemming from poor performance, reduced egg production, and diminished egg hatchability. This study investigated the inhibitory effect of 2 generally regarded as safe (GRAS), natural plant compounds, namely carvacrol (CR) and trans-cinnamaldehyde (TC), on A.

The aim of this study was to investigate the toxic effects of aflatoxins and evaluate the effectiveness of Bacillus subtilis ANSB060 in detoxifying aflatoxicosis in broilers. A total of 360 one-week-old male broilers (Ross 308) were assigned to six dietary treatments for five weeks. The treatment diets were: C0 (basal diet); C1.0 (C0 + 1.0 g B. subtilis ANSB060/kg diet); M0 (basal diet formulated with moldy peanut meal); M0.5, M1.0 and M2.0 (M0 + 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 g B.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of several fungal metabolites, including mycotoxins in natural grasses (Poaceae) intended for grazing cattle. A total number of 72 and 77 different metabolites were detected on 106 and 69 grass samples collected during 2011 and 2014, respectively. A total of 60 metabolites were found across both years.

Caleosins are a small family of calcium-binding proteins endowed with peroxygenase activity in plants. Caleosin-like genes are present in fungi; however, their functions have not been reported yet. In this work, we identify a plant caleosin-like protein in Aspergillus flavus that is highly expressed during the early stages of spore germination.

Spores of Bacillus megaterium were immobilized on a sensor disk by entrapment method followed by addition of pretreated milk and fluorogenic substrate, i.e., diacetate fluorescein with a response time of about 20 ± 5 min with ≥0.25 μg/L detection limit. Fluorescence was measured semiquantitatively using microbiological plate reader at specific excitation and emission spectra, i.e., 485 and 535 nm, respectively.

Publication date: December 2015
, Volume 52
Author(s): Pratheeba Yogendrarajah, Frank Devlieghere, Emmanuel Njumbe Ediage, Liesbeth Jacxsens, Bruno De Meulenaer, Sarah De Saeger

Ruminant diets include cereals, protein feeds, their by-products as well as hay and grass, grass/legume, whole-crop maize, small grain or sorghum silages. Furthermore, ruminants are annually or seasonally fed with grazed forage in many parts of the World. All these forages could be contaminated by several exometabolites of mycotoxigenic fungi that increase and diversify the risk of mycotoxin exposure in ruminants compared to swine and poultry that have less varied diets.

Publication date: Available online 10 August 2015
Food and Chemical Toxicology
Author(s): M.S. Frehse, M.I.M. Martins, E.Y.S. Ono, A.P.F.R.L. Bracarense, L.Y. Bissoqui, E.M.K. Teixeira, N.J.R. Santos, R.L. Freire

Some filamentous fungi in Aspergillus section Flavi produce carcinogenic secondary compounds called aflatoxins. Aflatoxin contamination is routinely managed in commercial agriculture with strains of Aspergillus flavus that do not produce aflatoxins. These non-aflatoxin-producing strains competitively exclude aflatoxin producers and reshape fungal communities so that strains with the aflatoxin-producing phenotype are less frequent.

Publication date: Available online 5 August 2015

Author(s): Mulunda Mwanza, Mary Egbuta, Ahmed M. Ali, Ahmed Abdel-Hadi

Publication date: February 2016
, Volume 60
Author(s): L.X. Wu, X.X. Ding, P.W. Li, X.H. Du, H.Y. Zhou, Y.Zh. Bai, L.X. Zhang

Publication date: 15 October 2015
, Volume 211
Author(s): Yujie Chen, Qing Kong, Chen Chi, Shihua Shan, Bin Guan

Aims
To report fungal and aflatoxin contamination in stored tobacco leaves and potential of Foeniculum vulgare (fennel) seed essential oil (EO) as plant based preservative in protection of tobacco during storage.

Mansooreh Mazaheri, Ali Akbar Moosavi-Movahedi, Ali Akbar Saboury, Fariba Khodagholi, Fatemeh Shaerzadeh, Nader Sheibani

Publication date: January 2016
, Volume 59
Author(s): Gerardo Martínez-Domínguez , Roberto Romero-González , Francisco Javier Arrebola , Antonia Garrido Frenich

Publication date: January 2016
, Volume 59
Author(s): Elizabeta Dimitrieska-Stojković , Biljana Stojanovska-Dimzoska , Gordana Ilievska , Risto Uzunov , Goran Stojković , Zehra Hajrulai-Musliu , Dean Jankuloski

Publication date: 1 February 2016
, Volume 192
Author(s): Amedeo Pietri, Paola Fortunati, Annalisa Mulazzi, Terenzio Bertuzzi

Publication date: 1 February 2016
, Volume 192
Author(s): Xian Zhang, Chao-Rui Li, Wei-Cheng Wang, Jian Xue, Ya-Ling Huang, Xian-Xian Yang, Bin Tan, Xi-Peng Zhou, Chuang Shao, Shi-Jia Ding, Jing-Fu Qiu

Publication date: December 2015
Source:LWT - Food Science and Technology, Volume 64, Issue 2
Author(s): Haiyan Zheng , Shuai Wei , Ying Xu , Mingtao Fan