Research Publications (Food Safety)

Metal-contaminated soils present a great threat to natural ecosystems and human health. Remediation studies focusing on metal-polluted soils with high organic matter (OM > 20%) are limited. This study evaluated the effectiveness of biochar, compost, diammonium phosphate (DAP), and iron oxides (Fe-O), in immobilizing metals from an OM-rich boreal forest soil contaminated with arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn).

Author(s): Fan Zhang, Fengying Gu, Huili Yan, Zhenyan He, Bolun Wang, Hao Liu, Tingting Yang, Feng Wang

Vinasse is a waste from the alcohol industry that can support microalgal growth because of its mineral and organic contents. Growing microalgae on waste can be a means of its remediation and decrease culture costs. The physiological knowledge of microalgae on waste can generate subsidies to increase biomass productivity. However, few studies have explored the photosynthetic metabolism of microalgae on complex matrices such as vinasse.

Nuclear production and industrial activities led to widespread contamination of the Department of Energy (DOE) managed Savannah River Site (SRS), located in South Carolina, United States. The H-02 wetland system was constructed in 2007 for the treatment of industrial and storm water runoff from the SRS Tritium Facility. Albeit at low levels, mercury (Hg) has been detected in the soils of the H-02 wetland ecosystem.

Pig manure may contain antibiotic residues, antibiotic-resistant bacteria or pathogens, which may reach the environment upon fertilization. During this study, 69 antibiotic residues belonging to 12 classes were quantified in 89 pig slurry samples. These samples were also studied for the presence of Salmonella and for E. coli resistant to meropenem, colistin, ciprofloxacin, or cefotaxim. The obtained isolates were further tested for antibacterial susceptibility.

Author(s): Qiang Wang, Meng Chen, Liwen Qiang, Wei Wu, Jing Yang, Lingyan Zhu

In this work, a new method was developed for multi-element determination of Cd and Mn in samples of sugarcane spirit (cachaça) by FAAS using the air-assisted dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction (AA-DLLME).

Gliotoxin (GT) is a fungal secondary metabolite that has attracted great interest due to its high biological activity since it was discovered by the 1930s. It exhibits a unique structure that contains a N-C = O group as the characteristics of the classical PSII inhibitor. However, GT’s phytotoxicity, herbicidal activity and primary action targets in plants remain hidden.

The velvet regulator VosA plays a pivotal role in asexual sporulation in the model filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans. In the present study, we characterize the roles of VosA in sexual spores (ascospores) in A. nidulans. During ascospore maturation, the deletion of vosA causes a rapid decrease in spore viability. The absence of vosA also results in a lack of trehalose biogenesis and decreased tolerance of ascospores to thermal and oxidative stresses.

Author(s): Lang Lang, Minnan Bao, Weixin Jing, Wei Chen, Lan Wang

Author(s): Boon Yih Hui, Nur Nadhirah Mohamad Zain, Sharifah Mohamad, Puttaruksa Varanusupakul, Hasnah Osman, Muggundha Raoov

Author(s): Javier González-Miguel, David Becerro-Recio, Javier Sotillo, Fernando Simón, Mar Siles-Lucas

Author(s): Elize Aparecida Santos Musachio, Stífani Machado Araujo, Vandreza Cardoso Bortolotto, Shanda de Freitas Couto, Mustafa Munir Mustafa Dahleh, Marcia Rósula Poetini, Eliana Fernandes Jardim, Luana Barreto Meichtry, Bruna Piaia Ramborger, Rafael Roehrs, Gustavo Petri Guerra, Marina Prigol

Author(s): Analía Vazquez, Laura Recalde, Andrea Cabrera, María Daniela Groppa, María Patricia Benavides

Author(s): Palas Samanta, Sandipan Pal, Aloke Kumar Mukherjee, Apurba Ratan Ghosh

Author(s): Cuiping Wang, Lipeng Hao, Cong Liu, Renjie Chen, Weidong Wang, Yichen Chen, Yining Yang, Xia Meng, Qingyan Fu, Zhekang Ying, Haidong Kan

Author(s): Yue Su, Weijun Wang, Jiye Hu, Xiaolu Liu

Author(s): Yongfeng Wang, Qingke Nie, Baoshan Huang, Huicai Cheng, Liang Wang, Qiang He

Author(s): Manon Pruvost-Couvreur, Bruno Le Bizec, Camille Béchaux, Gilles Rivière

Abstract

Usually health risk related to food contaminants is assessed based on consumption data collected on a few days. Consequently, this approach considers neither the evolution of exposures over time nor the potential accumulation of the substance.

The aim of the present study was to develop a method to assess lifetime dietary risk due to cadmium exposure.

Author(s): Ning Xu, Miao Li, Wei-Chun Chou, Zhoumeng Lin

BACKGROUND Common bean is a staple food in Latin America and Africa, however, studies about contamination of common bean with pesticides are rarely reported. So, the goals of this study were to validate a multiresidue method and apply it in monitoring of pesticides in common beans. Extraction was performed applying QuEChERS approach to ground samples. C18 and PSA were used for clean‐up and a solvent exchange step was performed before injection into the GC–MS/MS.

The increased concern on the consequence of exposure to multiple chemical combinations has led national regulatory authorities to develop different concepts to conduct risk assessments on chemical mixtures.

Cadmium is an environmental pollutant well known for its nephrotoxic effects. Nevertheless, mechanisms underlying nephrotoxicity continue to be elucidated. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged in recent years as modulators of xenobiotic-induced toxicity. In this context, our study aimed at elucidating whether miRNAs are involved in renal proximal tubular toxicity induced by cadmium exposure.

The emergence of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) has hampered treatments for tuberculosis, which consequently now require novel agents to overcome such drug resistance. The genetically stable D-alanine–D-alanine ligase A (DdlA) has been deemed as an excellent therapeutic target for tuberculosis. In the present study, a competitive inhibitor (IMB-0283) of DdlA was obtained via high-throughput screening.

Bisphenol A is an important organic chemical as an intermediate, final and inert ingredient in manufacturing of many important products like polycarbonate plastics, epoxy resins, flame retardants, food–drink p...