Research Publications (Food Safety)

Listeria monocytogenes is an opportunistic intracellular pathogen causing an infection termed listeriosis. Despite the low incidence of listeriosis, the high mortality rate in individuals at risk makes this bacterium one of the most dangerous foodborne pathogens. Reports about a relapse of infection after antibiotic treatment suggest that the bacteria may be able to evade antibiotic treatment and persist as a dormant, antibiotic-tolerant subpopulation.

L. monocytogenes has been linked to fresh produce and detected in the retail environment. This study simulated the retail practices (crisping, misting, and storage) of unbagged whole heads of romaine lettuce to determine the growth of L. monocytogenes and natural psychrotrophic microflora. Three nalidixic acid-resistant strains of L. monocytogenes strains were inoculated to each head of lettuce (≈5 log10 CFU/g).

Salmonella, especially drug-resistant Salmonella poses a serious threat to food safety and human health. Herein, we proposed a rapid, accurate and sensitive phage amplification-based analysis (PAA) based on an isolated Salmonella phage T156 with broad host range and potent lysis ability for the quantification of viable Salmonella, as well as rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing.

Conventional Salmonella surveillance requires a week for isolation, confirmation, and subsequent serotyping. We previously showed that this could be reduced by 24 hours by combining the pre-enrichment and enrichment steps into a single selective pre-enrichment step and was tested on directly after picking.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a shellfish-borne pathogen that is a highly prevalent causative agent of inflammatory gastroenteritis in humans. Genomic libraries have proven useful for the identification of novel gene functions in many bacterial species.

The oligopeptide transporter (OPT) family is a group of proton-coupled symporters that play diverse roles, including metal homeostasis. However, little is known about this family of peanuts.

Dengue fever virus (DENV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that poses a serious risk to human health. Aedes albopictus is a widely distributed vector of dengue fever in China. Based on the impact of physiological activity, the microbiome in A. albopictus will provide a novel environment-friendly approach to control DENV transmission. We performed metagenomic sequencing on A. albopictus before and after exposure to DENV blood meal to detect microbiome variation of A.

The bacterial amyloid curli, produced by Enterobacteriales including Salmonella species and Escherichia coli, is implicated in the pathogenesis of several complex autoimmune diseases. Curli binds to extracellular DNA, and these complexes drive autoimmunity via production of anti-double-stranded DNA autoantibodies. Here, we investigated immune activation by phenol-soluble modulins (PSMs), the amyloid proteins expressed by Staphylococcus species.

Harmful algal bloom (HAB) species Alexandrium catenella and Dinophysis acuminata are associated with paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) and diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) in humans, respectively. While PSP and DSP have been studied extensively, less is known about the effects of these HAB species or their associated toxins on shellfish. This study investigated A. catenella and D. acuminata toxicity in a larval oyster (Crassostrea virginica) bioassay.

Dogs with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus spp. (MRS) infections often undergo treatment in their homes, interacting with their owners and surroundings. This close contact between dogs and owners may facilitate the interspecies transmission of MRS. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the transmission of MRS from infected dogs to their owners and home environments. Seven households with dogs that had been diagnosed with methicillin-resistant S.

EFSA Journal, Volume 20, Issue 5, May 2022. Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) was identified among the most relevant antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria in the EU for cattle and horses in previous scientific opinions.

by Yen-Yi Liu, Chih-Chieh Chen, Chien-Hua Yang, Hui-Yi Hsieh, Jia-Xin He, Hao-Hsuan Lin, Chi-Ching Lee Listeria monocytogenes can cause listeriosis, and people with hypoimmunity such as pregnant women, infants and fetuses are at high risk of invasive infection. Although the incidence of listeriosis is low, the fatality rate is high. Therefore, continual surveillance and rapid epidemiological investigation are crucial for addressing L. monocytogenes.

This study aimed to develop innovative micro-nano fibers loaded with lemon peel essential oil for food packaging via centrifugal spinning. Lemon peel essential oil (LPO) was extracted from dried lemon peel by hydrodistillation. The major one of the 16 components of the extract detected by GS-MS was limonene (60.4%). Gelatin fibrous mats loaded with three different concentrations of LPO were fabricated with centrifugal spinning and then cross-linked.

Matrix-matching calibration is a method for minimizing or eliminating the matrix effect in pesticide residue analysis. However, when the matrix effect cannot be ignored, a matrix-matching calibration must be established for each single plant, which is time-consuming and laborious.

The increasing demand for ready-to-eat fresh foods requires the use of non-thermal sterilization, hence, the application of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) combined with ultrasound could serve as a novel food preservation method to prevent foodborne diseases. In this study, in silico tools were used to predict and screen potential AMPs from the antimicrobial amino acid sequence of myosin heavy chain of Larimichthys crocea.

After a lull of >20 years, Algeria experienced a cholera outbreak in 2018 that included 291 suspected cases. We found that outbreak isolates were Vibrio cholerae O1 serotype Ogawa from seventh pandemic El Tor sublineage AFR14, which corresponds to a new introduction of cholera into Africa from South Asia.

This study aimed to decolorize azo dyes in high-salt industrial wastewater under high-salt and low oxygen conditions using extreme halophilic/halotolerant bacteria screened from the salt fields of Tibet, which consisted of Enterococcus, unclassified Enterobacteriaceae, Staphylococcus, Bacillus, and Kosakonia. Under the optimal conditions, 600 mg/l Congo red, Direct Black G (DBG), Amaranth, methyl red, and methyl orange could be completely decolorized in 24, 8, 8, 12, and 12 h, respectively.

Salmonella enterica is an important foodborne pathogen worldwide. We used long and short-read sequencing to close genomes of eight multidrug-resistant (MDR) S. enterica strains, belonging to serovars Infantis (2), Albany, Oranienburg, I 4,[5],12:i:-, Javiana, Schwarzengrund, and Kentucky from broiler chicken farms and processing plants in Trinidad and Tobago. They also belonged to seven different sequence types (STs- 32, 292, 1510, 19, 24, 152, and 96).

Microbial degradation is considered as an attractive method to eliminate exposure to aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), the most toxic mycotoxin that causes great economic losses and brings a serious threat to human and animal health, in food and feed. In this study, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens WF2020, isolated from naturally fermented pickles, could effectively degrade AFB1 ranging from 1 to 8 μg/ml, and the optimum temperature and pH value were 37–45°C and 8.0, respectively. Moreover, B.

Controlling nematode-caused diseases that affect cattle and crops world-wide remains a critical economic issue, owing to the lack of effective sustainable interventions. The interdependence of roundworms and their environmental microbes, including their microbiota, offers an opportunity for developing more targeted anthelminthic strategies.

Cable bacteria (CB) perform electrogenic sulfur oxidation (e-SOx) by spatially separating redox half reactions over centimetre distances. For freshwater systems, the ecology of CB is not yet well understood, partly because they proved difficult to cultivate. This study introduces a new ‘agar pillar’ approach to selectively enrich and investigate CB populations.

A novel mesophilic and neutrophilic sulfate-reducing bacterium, strain SF6T, was isolated from sediment of a brackish lake in Japan. Cells of strain SF6T were motile and rod-shaped with length of 1.2–2.5 μm and width of 0.6–0.9 μm. Growth was observed at 10–37 °C with an optimum growth temperature of 28 °C. The pH range for growth was 5.8–8.2 with an optimum pH of 7.0. The most predominant fatty acid was anteiso-C15:0.

Pulsed light (PL) was used to remove Ochratoxin A (OTA) from clear grape juice in this study. Firstly, the factors of OTA degraded by PL were explored, and the OTA degradation rate was 95.29% after optimization by response surface methodology. Dose-response curves were most suitable for kinetic fitting of OTA degradation by PL treatment (R2 = 0.9937).

Lead smelting slag (LSS) is a hazardous waste containing heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, and Pb) and its improper disposal may cause irreparable damage to the ecosystem. Cementitious materials prepared with LSS can be used in construction fields and hazardous heavy metals are also solidified in prepared cementitious materials.

This study investigates the reduction of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in skim milk by using ultraviolet light at 254 nm and the effects of influencing factors on the efficacy including treatment time (min), depth of samples (mm), contamination level (μg L-1), stirring, temperature, and fat content in milk. The colour and pH of milk samples were measured to evaluate the influence of the treatment on these values.