Research Publications (Food Safety)

Use of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) in pesticides may lead to residual levels in food crops, thus raising food safety and environmental concerns. Since little is known about Ag NP behavior in wash water during typical commercial washing of fresh produce, this study assessed the temporal changes in Ag NP behavior when exposed to 2–100 mg/L free chlorine (Cl 2 ) in simulated lettuce wash water for up to 10 days.

Inshell walnuts could be contaminated with pathogens through direct contact or cross-contamination during harvesting and postharvest hulling, drying, or storage. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of ultraviolet–C (UV–C) radiation in inactivating foodborne pathogens on inshell walnut surfaces.

Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) are one of the most consumed fruits worldwide. The fruit can become contaminated with Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes at different stages of the production and supply chain, and these pathogens may survive under different storage conditions. The effect of relative humidity, temperature and time of storage on the attachment and survival characteristics of both pathogens on the surface of tomatoes was investigated.

by My-Hang Huynh, Vern B. Carruthers The Toxoplasma gondii lytic cycle is a repetition of host cell invasion, replication, egress, and re-invasion into the next host cell. While the molecular players involved in egress have been studied in greater detail in recent years, the signals and pathways for triggering egress from the host cell have not been fully elucidated.

by Salma Javed, JoAnn McClure, Muhammad Ali Syed, Osahon Obasuyi, Shahzad Ali, Sadia Tabassum, Mohammad Ejaz, Kunyan Zhang Buffalo represent a major source of milk in Pakistan. However, production is impacted by the disease bovine mastitis. Mastitis causes significant economic losses, with Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) being one of its major causative agents.

Lithium-ion battery technology is one of the innovations gaining interest in utility-scale energy storage. However, there is a lack of scientific studies about its environmental performance. This study aims to evaluate the environmental impacts of lithium-ion batteries and conventional lead-acid batteries for stationary grid storage applications using life cycle assessment.

In this study, 21 pesticides and 4 aflatoxins were monitored in baby food marketed in Brazil, applying ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-Orbitrap-MS).

Group I Clostridium botulinum and Clostridium sporogenes are physiologically and genetically closely related. Both are widely distributed in the environment and can cause foodborne botulism. In this work, a physiological study was conducted with 37 isolates from spoiled canned food and five referenced strains of C. sporogenes (three isolates) and Group I C. botulinum (two isolates).

To investigate the maternal genetic effects of cadmium (Cd) -induced apoptotic in ovarian granulosa cells (OGCs). Herein, pregnant Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were treated with CdCl2 from day 1 to day 20, F1 and F2 female rats were mated with untreated males to produce F2 and F3 generations. Under this model, significant apoptotic changes were observed in F1 OGCs induced by Cd (Liu et al., 2021).

The goal of this study was to analyze whether mitochondria-associated endoplasmic reticulum membrane (MAMs) dysfunction mediated arsenic (As)-evoked pulmonary ferroptosis and acute lung injury (ALI).

Boneless hams were prepared with four different brines and inoculated on the surface and at a depth of 1 cm with multiple strains of Clostridium perfringens, Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica. Hams were processed with a standard, low relative humidity or interrupted process cycle to an end point temperature of 70 °C. Microbiological populations were determined at the beginning, mid-point and end of the cycles.

Our objectives were to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a rapid and novel immunochromatography-based mastitis kit that includes 3 independent tests to detect coliforms (Escherichia coli or Klebsiella pneumoniae), 

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) such as cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), and arsenic (As), polluting the environment, pose a significant risk and cause a wide array of adverse changes in plant physiology. Above threshold accumulation of PTEs is alarming which makes them prone to ascend along the food chain, making their environmental prevention a critical intervention. On a global scale, current initiatives to remove the PTEs are costly and might lead to more pollution.

Mosses are one of the earliest diverging land plants that adapted to living on land. The BURP domain-containing proteins (BURP proteins) are plant-specific proteins that appeared when plants shifted from aquatic environments to land. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that the BURP domain of higher plants is originated from lower land plants and divergent because of motif conversion.

In the recent years, a growing number of studies have shown that the occurrence of myocardial ischemia (MI) is closely related to the gut microbiota (GM). The Danshen-Honghua herb pair (DHHP), a classic combination in traditional Chinese herbal formulas, has been widely applied throughout history to cure cardiovascular disease, exhibiting remarkable clinical efficacy to treat ischemic heart disease (IHD). However, the intrinsic regulation mechanism of DHHP in treating MI remains unclear.

Shigellosis is one of the most important gastric infections caused by different species of Shigella, and has been regarded as a serious threat to public health. Lineage/sublineage profile of Shigella sonnei is strongly associated with the antibiotic resistance and population structure of this pathogen. In this study, we determined the phylogeny and antibiotic resistance profiles of S.

The present study reports the production, extraction, partial characterization, biological activities and use in textile dyeing of an orange pigment from Metabacillus idriensis strain LipT27 (MN818522.2). Pigment production occurred with 400 µg carotenoid/g biomass yield. Characterization of the methanol extracts of pigment by UV–Visible spectrophotometry, TLC, NMR, and FTIR indicated that the pigment was a carotenoid group pigment.

Zearalenone (ZEN), which is usually generated by Fusarium species, is common contamination of corn. ZEN induces estrogen effects and disrupts the reproductive system of humans and animals. Herein, we established a method of quantum dots (QDs) immunochromatographic test strips for the detection of ZEN. In this method, QDs (Q2605, G2701A) and anti-ZEN monoclonal antibodies were conjugated by carbodiimide.

In the context of inefficient antibiotics, antibacterial alternatives are urgently needed to stop the increasing resistance rates in pathogens. This study reports the fabrication and characterization of four promising magnetite-based antibiotic delivery systems for ENT (ear, nose and throat) applications. Magnetite nanoparticles were functionalized with streptomycin and neomycin and some were entrapped in polymeric spheres.

Salmonella is a group of bacteria that constitutes the leading cause of diarrheal diseases, posing a great disease burden worldwide. There are numerous pathways for zoonotic Salmonella transmission to humans; however, the role of companion animals in spreading these bacteria is largely underestimated in China.

Amiodarone (AMD) is an antiarrhythmic drug that induces idiosyncratic toxicity. Environmental pollutants, including heavy metals, could interact with its toxicity by affecting pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Other levels of interaction could exist in yeast, such as oxidative stress and the general stress response. In this study, we investigated the interaction of mercury chloride (HgCl2) and cadmium chloride (CdCl2) with AMD toxicity on Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Consumption of food that is contaminated with Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) has been linked to serious foodborne disease outbreaks. Our aim was to provide a descriptive study on the presence and virulence factors of STEC and non-STEC O157 isolates recovered from 2017 diverse meat and meat product samples from all provinces of South Africa (n = 1758) and imported meat from South Africa's major ports of entry (n = 259).

Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, Volume 69, Issue 3, Page 943-957, May 2022. Toxoplasmosis is one of the most frequent food-borne infections in humans caused by an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite, Toxoplasma gondii. Rodents, as intermediate and reservoir hosts, play key role in the epidemiology of toxoplasmosis; because they are the main source of infection for the Felidae family members and establish the parasite life cycle.

Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, Volume 69, Issue 3, Page 1589-1595, May 2022. The intense contact of children with domestic animals or environments contaminated with faeces of these animals, together with habits related to lack of hygiene, can facilitate infection by zoonoses. The study evaluated the seroprevalence and risk factors associated with toxoplasmosis and toxocariasis in schoolchildren in the city of Jataizinho, Paraná.

Journal of Food Safety, EarlyView. ComBase is a widely used microbial modeling database. ComBase data can be used to develop and validate models and to test novel modeling methods like artificial neural networks (ANN) and acceptable prediction zones (APZ), which have been shown to outperform traditional methods.