Research Publications (Food Safety)

Land use change alters the accumulation of heavy metals (HMs) in soils and might have significant influence on the assembly and functions of soil microbial community. Although numerous studies have discussed the impacts of either total amounts or availability of metals on soil microbes in land change, there is still limited understanding on which one is more critical.

Aflatoxins produced by the Aspergillus species are highly toxic, carcinogenic, and cause severe contamination to food sources, leading to serious health consequences. Contaminations by aflatoxins have been reported in food and feed, such as groundnuts, millet, sesame seeds, maize, wheat, rice, fig, spices and cocoa due to fungal infection during pre- and post-harvest conditions.

Salmonella is a leading cause of foodborne disease and is often associated with the consumption of foods of animal origin. In this study, sixty-six Salmonella isolates were obtained from 631 raw meat samples purchased at small retail suppliers in Hubei Province, China. The most prevalent Salmonella serotypes were Thompson (18.2%) and Agona (13.6%).

While antibiotic-resistant bacteria have been detected in extreme environments, including Antarctica, to date there are no reports of Acinetobacter species isolated from this region. Here, we characterized by whole-genome sequencing (WGS) the genetic content of a single antibiotic-resistant Acinetobacter spp. isolate (A154) collected in Antarctica.

We present the complete genome sequence of an enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O111:H8 strain. This strain was isolated from a hemolytic-uremic syndrome patient and was responsible for a large outbreak associated with the consumption of raw beef in 2011.

The genome of a multidrug-resistant (MDR) Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar I 4,[5],12:i:– isolate from the 2015 U.S. pork outbreak was sequenced. The complete nucleotide sequence of USDA15WA-1 is 5,031,277 bp, including Salmonella genomic island 4 encoding tolerance to multiple metals and an MDR module inserted in the fljB region.

Author(s): Cristina García-Florentino, Maite Maguregui, Chiara Ciantelli, Alessandro Sardella, Alessandra Bonazza, Ignasi Queralt, Jose Antonio Carrero, Claudio Natali, Héctor Morillas, Juan Manuel Madariaga, Gorka Arana

Author(s): Darla Silveira Volcan Maia, Louise Haubert, Isabela Schneid Kroning, Kauana dos Santos Soares, Thaís Larré Oliveira, Wladimir Padilha da Silva

Author(s): Veronica Rodriguez-Martinez, Gonzalo Velázquez, Rosario de Jesús Rodríguez Altaif, Fabian Fagotti, Jorge Welti-Chanes, J. Antonio Torres

Listeria monocytogenes, in fresh and ready‐to‐eat produce such as whole fresh apples, is of concern as there is no “kill step” in their packing process that would eliminate the pathogenic bacteria. Recent listeriosis outbreaks revealed that insufficient cleaning and sanitation practices in fresh apple packing houses may lead to contamination of fruit with L. monocytogenes.

The aim of this study was to determinate whether coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) from buffalo milk or the milking environment possess virulence factors that are associated with intramammary infections or antimicrobial resistance. Milk samples (n = 320) from 80 lactating buffalo were evaluated for clinical and subclinical mastitis by physical examination, the strip cup test, California Mastitis Test (CMT), and somatic cell count (SCC) over a 4-mo period.

by Stephen F. Fitzgerald, Amy E. Beckett, Javier Palarea-Albaladejo, Sean McAteer, Sharif Shaaban, Jason Morgan, Nur Indah Ahmad, Rachel Young, Neil A. Mabbott, Liam Morrison, James L. Bono, David L. Gally, Tom N. McNeilly

We present the complete genome sequence of fluoranthene-consuming Cycloclasticus sp. strain PY97N. This strain has one circular chromosome with a G+C content of 42.06%. Moreover, two genomic islands were identified as putative conjugative elements. These genomic details are expected to inform our understanding of the remarkable catabolic capacities of organisms of the Cycloclasticus lineage.

Author(s): Chieh-Hsiu Lee, Kai-Ting Chen, Jer-An Lin, Yu-Ting Chen, Yi-An Chen, Jung-Tsung Wu, Chang-Wei Hsieh

Author(s): Alessandra Snak, Gilberto Serighelli Junior, Giulia Von Tonnemann Pilati, Carlos Czpak Kroetz, Wagner Consoni, José Cristani, Anderson Barbosa de Moura

Author(s): Wenhao Li, Kaikai Mao, Chaoya Liu, Peipan Gong, Pengfei Xu, Gang Wu, Wei Le, Hu Wan, Hong You, Jianhong Li

Inhibitory activity of caraway and juniper essential oils was tested against two aflatoxigenic strains (Aspergillus flavus—four isolates and Aspergillus parasiticus—one isolate) using the method of agar plates. A. flavus IKBT and A. flavus IKB isolated from corn flour, A. flavus IKT isolated from peanuts, and A. flavus IKK isolated from flint corn. A. parasiticus CBS 260.67 was obtained from the Centralbureau voor Schimmelcultures (CBS, Utrecht, The Netherlands).

The study investigated the effects of chitosan (CS) combined with essential oils (EOs) in controlling the fungal contamination in peanut kernels. The antifungal activities of CS and EOs were evaluated against Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium citrinum. CS (2%, w/v in 1% v/v acetic acid) packaging films were formulated by incorporating different EOs (4%) separately, that is, thyme (TEOs), cinnamon (CEOs), and lemongrass (LEOs), respectively.

Starch is a very common carbohydrate. Along with its use in the pharmaceutical, textile, and paper industries, starch is widely used in the food industry as well, but native starch has limited use due to its certain properties such as retrogradation, problems related to gelatinization, instability at high temperatures, and acidic conditions. Various modification procedures are used to improve the properties of native starch.

ABSTRACT In this study, quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged and safe combined with dispersive liquid‐liquid microextraction is developed for extraction of ten pesticides in complex sample matrices of water and milk. In this regard, effective factors of proposed extraction technique combined with gas chromatography‐flame ionization detector were designed, modeled and optimized using central composite design, multiple linear regression and Nelder‐Mead simplex optimization.

Stone surfaces are extreme environments that support microbial life. This microbial growth occurs despite unfavourable conditions associated with stone including limited sources of nutrients and water, high pH and exposure to extreme variations in temperature, humidity and irradiation. These stone‐dwelling microbes are often resistant to extreme environments including exposure to desiccation, heavy metals, UV and Gamma irradiation.

Successful application of microorganisms to heavy metal remediation depends on their resistance to toxic metals. This study contrasted the differences of tolerant mechanisms between Pb2+ and Cd2+ in Enterobacter sp. Microbial respiration and production of formic acid showed that Enterobacter sp. had a higher tolerant concentration of Pb (>1000 mg l−1) than Cd (about 200 mg l−1). Additionally, SEM confirmed that most of Pb and Cd nanoparticles (NPs) were adsorbed onto cell membrane.

Iron is essential for most living organisms. In addition, its biogeochemical cycling influences important processes in the geosphere (e.g., the mobilization or immobilization of trace elements and contaminants). The reduction of Fe(III) to Fe(II) can be catalysed microbially, particularly by metal‐respiring bacteria utilizing Fe(III) as a terminal electron acceptor.

ABSTRACT Non-pigmented rapidly growing mycobacteria (NPRGM) are widely distributed in water, soil and animals. It has been observed an increasing importance of NPRGM related-infections, particularly due to the high antimicrobial resistance. NPRGM have rough and smooth colony phenotypes, and several studies have showed that rough colony variants are more virulent than smooth ones. However, other studies have failed to validate this observation.