Research Publications (Food Safety)

Continuous observation of wastewater treatment plants is very crucial to keep them safe for proper use and protection from pathogenic contamination. Illumina sequencing technology was used for microbiome structuring from various samples taken from different portions of the wastewater treatment plant, including influent, activated, return sludge and effluent, where different microbial compositions were found.

Antimicrobial resistance represents one of the greatest challenges of the twenty-first century, and it is globally recognized that addressing this problem requires a concerted One Health approach involving humans, animals, and the environment. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) currently represents a global burden; it is resistant to almost all beta-lactams and some MRSA strains are highly multiresistant. S.

Ciguatera poisoning (CP) is a foodborne disease caused by the consumption of seafood contaminated with ciguatoxins (CTXs) produced by dinoflagellates in the genera Gambierdiscus and Fukuyoa. The toxin production and toxin profiles were explored in four clones of G. polynesiensis originating from different islands in French Polynesia with contrasted CP risk: RIK7 (Mangareva, Gambier), NHA4 (Nuku Hiva, Marquesas), RAI-1 (Raivavae, Australes), and RG92 (Rangiroa, Tuamotu).

The present study was conducted from July to August 2018 on milk samples taken at dairy farms in the Northern Province and Kigali District of Rwanda in order to identify Staphylococcus spp. associated with bovine intramammary infection. A total of 161 staphylococcal isolates originating from quarter milk samples of 112 crossbred dairy cattle were included in the study. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed and isolates were examined for the presence of various resistance genes.

Campylobacter jejuni is a zoonotic pathogen that infects the human gut through the food chain mainly by consumption of undercooked chicken meat, raw chicken cross-contaminated ready-to-eat food or by raw milk. In...

Human brucellosis has become a severe public health problem in China’s Guangxi Province, and there has been higher prevalence of brucellosis in this region after 2010. Both multiple locus variable-number tande...

by Zhihong Du, Jiali Xing, Xiaohu Luo, Li Wang, Lihong Pan, Yulin Li, Ren Wang, Yuntao Liu, Xiaohong Li, Zhengxing Chen

Author(s): Xuming Kang, Yanfang Zhao, Derong Shang, Yuxiu Zhai, Jinsong Ning, Haiyan Ding, Xiaofeng Sheng

Author(s): N. Sharman, C.A. Wallace, L. Jespersen

Abstract

Background

The topic of food safety culture and climate is growing attention from industry, researchers, standards owners and certification bodies. Authors use the terms food safety culture and climate, however, there are no unified definitions to provide clarity on the meaning of these terms.

Author(s): Changxia Sun, Rui Wang, Tianyu Wang, Qiang Li

Author(s): Kashif Ameer, Yunhee Jo, Rai Muhammad Amir, Hafiz Muhammad Shahbaz, Joong-Ho Kwon

Rice grain quality is a complex trait that reflects the opinions of producers, processors, sellers and consumers in regard to production, processing, marketing and consumption of the grain. It can be roughly divided into milling quality, appearance quality, cooking and sensory quality, nutrition quality and hygiene quality.

Over the last years, the global production and trade of kiwifruit has been severely impacted by Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (Psa), a phytopathogen that causes a disease in kiwifruit plants known as bacterial canker. The available treatments for this disease are still scarce, with the most common involving frequently spraying the orchards with disinfectants, copper-based bactericides and/or antibiotics.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of management practices on food handler commitment and, ultimately, food safety performance in food manufacturing facilities. Two focus groups, one with six food handlers and the other with six food safety professionals, were used to develop a conceptual model that measured the effect of management practices on food handler commitment and organizational performance.

The high frequency and incidence of foodborne outbreaks related to fresh vegetables consumption is a major public health concern and an economic burden worldwide. This study evaluated the effect of individual and combined application of ultrasound (40 kHz, 100 W) and ozone on the inactivation of foodborne Escherichia coli and Salmonella, as well as their impact on cabbage color and vitamin C content.

Author(s): Shuyan Miao, Bei Han, Chenze Zhao, Juntao Hu, Jinyu Zhu, Xin Zhang, Longsheng Sun

Author(s): Jing Gao, Changqing Dong, Ying Zhao, Xiaoying Hu, Wu Qin, Xiaoqiang Wang, Junjiao Zhang, Junjie Xue, Xuming Zhang

Author(s): Patrizia Casagrande Proietti, Gabriella Guelfi, Sara Bellucci, Silvio De Luca, Settimio Di Gregorio, Camillo Pieramati, Maria Pia Franciosini

In this study, a new covalent organic framework, consisting of tetra(4‐aminophenyl)porphyrin and tris(4‐formyl phenyl)amine, was layer‐by‐layer immobilized on stainless‐steel wire as a coating for microextraction. The fabrication process was easy and controllable under mild conditions. The as‐grown extracted fiber was applied to extract polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in aqueous solution via head‐space solid‐phase microextraction.

With the aim of developing a fruit-based beverage in products which are severely damaged by heat, a high-intensity ultrasound treatment combined with moderate heat treatment (called thermosonication) was applied. A fruit smoothie (mango, jackfruit and rice milk) was thermosonicated applying a Box–Benhken model with amplitude (70, 77.5 or 85%), time (15, 20 or 25 min) and temperature (40, 47.5 or 55 °C) as independent variables.

In food analysis, a trend towards on-site testing of quality and safety parameters is emerging. So far, on-site testing has been mainly explored by miniaturized optical spectroscopy and ligand-binding assay approaches such as lateral flow immunoassays and biosensors. However, for the analysis of multiple parameters at regulatory levels, mass spectrometry (MS) is the method of choice in food testing laboratories.

Histoplasmosis is considered the most common invasive opportunistic fungal disease in the Americas, with outbreaks and micro-epidemics reported for over 80 years. In Brazil, this disease has been described since 1946, reaching a remarkable incidence in the population, especially during the HIV–AIDS pandemic.

Background Norovirus is an important cause of epidemic acute gastroenteritis (AGE), yet the burden of endemic disease in adults has not been well documented. We estimated the prevalence and incidence of outpatient and community-acquired inpatient norovirus AGE at 4 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMC) (Atlanta, Georgia; Bronx, New York; Houston, Texas; and Los Angeles, California) and examined trends over 4 surveillance years.

To the Editor—In a recent issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, Faure-Bardon and colleagues report that maternal primary cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is associated with adverse clinical outcomes for the fetus only when infections occur during the first trimester of pregnancy [1]. We laud their efforts to meticulously assess the timing of maternal primary infection.

Antibiotic resistance is a field in which the concept of One Health can best be illustrated. One Health is based on the definition of communication spaces among diverse environments. Antibiotic resistance is encoded by genes, however, these genes are propagated in mobile genetic elements (MGEs), circulating among bacterial species and clones that are integrated into the multiple microbiotas of humans, animals, food, sewage, soil, and water environments, the One Health microbiosphere.