Research Publications (Food Safety)

From planting to distribution stages, fresh produce can be contaminated by humans, water, animals, soil, equipment and the environment. Produce growers play an essential role in managing and minimizing on-farm food safety risks. Due to an increase in public awareness about produce safety, farmer food safety education has become an important research and extension topic.

ABSTRACT Background Fruit and vegetable consumption has increased among masses due to their tremendous health benefits. However, recent studies have shown that contaminated products may serve as a vehicle for foodborne pathogens and harmful chemicals. Therefore, fresh vegetables must be decontaminated before consumption to ensure food safety.

As a popular hot‐pot ingredient, Chinese‐style shrimp mud (Xia‐Hua) is usually transported and stored frozen. However, frozen storage leads to decreased quality of Xia‐Hua products caused by the variations in physicochemical and functional properties of myofibrillar proteins (MPs). Κ‐carrageenan and its oligosaccharides are reported as antioxidants and antifreeze and can stabilize proteins in whole shrimp, but their effects on MPs in Xia‐Hua remain poorly understood.

Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus are two species able to produce aflatoxins in foodstuffs, and in particular in hazelnuts, at harvest and during postharvest phase. As not all the strains of these species are aflatoxin producers, it is necessary to develop techniques that can detect aflatoxigenic from not aflatoxigenic strains.

This study evaluated the effects of low doses of gamma radiation (up to 2.0 kGy) on the survival and growth of Listeria monocytogenes and on technological characteristics of RTE cooked hams, formulated without and with 50 and 150 mg/kg of sodium nitrite, after 30 days of cold (4°C) storage. The radiation reduced from 0.33 kGy in uncured and RTE50 to 0.25 kGy in RTE150 and after storage, a reduction (p > .05) in the Listeria growth in the cured samples.

Alternatives to the use of conventional veterinary drugs in food‐producing animals have gained attention, such as the use of natural products (NPs), mainly to soften the risks to the animal, the environment, and consumer's health. Although NPs have consistent advantages over conventional drugs, they cannot be considered risk free under food safety matters.

Author(s): Antuo Hu, Cancan Gao, Zhaoxin Lu, Fengxia Lu, Liangyu Kong, Xiaomei Bie

Background We investigated whether the incidence of death following myocardial infarction (MI) varied by season and latitude in the Swedish population. Methods We studied deaths following MI from January 1987 to December 2009, using the Swedish National Cause of Death Register. County of residence was used to determine latitude and population density.

Influent wastewater and effluent wastewater at the Rya treatment plant in Gothenburg, Sweden, were continuously monitored for enteric viruses by quantitative PCR (qPCR) during 1 year. Viruses in effluent wastewater were also identified by next-generation sequencing (NGS) in samples collected during spring, early summer, and winter. Samples of incoming wastewater were collected every second week.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is developing an Establishment-based Risk Assessment model for commercial and on-farm mills involved in the manufacture, storage, packaging, labelling or distribution of livestock feed (ERA-Feed Mill model). This model will help inform the allocation of inspection resources based on feed safety risk, including animal health and food safety risk.

Environmental hygiene monitoring in the food processing environment has become of much importance in current food safety programmes to ensure safe food production. However, conventional monitoring of surface hygiene based on visual inspection and microbial counts is slow and tedious and thus, is not able to support the current risk-based management system.

Food safety has become a global issue due to the morbidity and mortality associated with it, particularly in developing countries. The objective of this community-based study is to examine food safety practices and its associated factors among postnatal mothers in the Western Region of Ghana. A cross-sectional survey study was conducted from August 1 2019 to January 31, 2020 from which data was obtained from the postnatal mothers (). The data was analysed using SPSS v.23.

BACKGROUND In maritime growing environments, blueberry yield often exhibits excessive season‐to‐season variation, associated with poorly adapted photosynthetic responses to low light conditions.1 It is therefore necessary to develop methods that stabilise yield whilst maintaining or improving fruit quality.

Various fruits are involved in food models, including fresh‐cut fruit, fruit salad, and juices. Toxigenic fungi in horticulture have attracted interest in order to the food safety requirements and their illnesses relation. This study aimed to apply grape by‐products (Gbps) that contain bioactive compounds to reduce mycotoxin and limit toxigenic fungal‐activity in fresh‐cut fruit and juice. The Gbps were collected and extracted using ultra‐sonication.

The present study aimed to examine the efficiency of ethanolic extract of Capsicum annuum L (CAE) in improving the shelf life and quality of fresh‐cut C. annuum (FCCa). The uniformly sliced FCCa were prewashed with sodium hypochlorite solution (NaOCl) and then treated with 10% of CAE. The foodborne pathogens of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica were patched on the surface of FCCa and stored at 15°C and 4°C for 12 days.

In this study, a practical and excellent method was used to determine the famoxadone and cymoxanil via high-performance liquid chromatography equipped utilizing ultraviolet detector lamp (HPLC-UV) for investigating the dissipation behavior and residue distribution of famoxadone and cymoxanil in cucumber and soil ecosystem. The limit of quantification (LOQS) of famoxadone and cymoxanil in cucumber were 0.50, 1.00, 2.00 and 0.05, 0.50, 1.00 mg kg−1 in soil, respectively.

Aims Infection of seafood with pathogenic species of the genus Vibrio causes human food‐borne illnesses. This study was executed to examine the antimicrobial‐resistance phenotypes, biofilm‐forming capability, and virulence‐associated genes of Vibrio from fish and shellfishes. Methods and results Three hundred fresh water and marine fish and shellfish samples were collected from wet markets and supermarkets in Mansoura, Egypt.

by Casper C. Nyamukanza, Allan Sebata

Microorganisms play a crucial and unique role in fish and fish product safety. The presence of human pathogens and the formation of histamine caused by spoilage bacteria make the control of both pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms critical for fish product safety.

Tropane alkaloids (TAs) are secondary plant metabolites derived mainly from Solanaceae plant families, with the most virulent invasive species being Datura stramonium. Datura stramonium commonly grows in cereal fields and produce TAs (e.g., hyoscyamine and scopolamine) which may accidentally contaminate cereals (and cereal‐based foods) at occasionally high levels.

In this study, two near neutral pH electrolysed water (NEW1 produced by redirecting of the catholyte solution back to the anode chamber and NEW2 produced by using NaCl and NaHCO3 as electrolyte) and control (NEW0, produced by commercial unit) were evaluated for their stability during 75 h storageat 7°C.

Peas are highly seasonal and perishable in nature, thereby requiring suitable preservation methods to be available throughout the year. Osmotic drying is one of the suitable methods for preserving perishable and semi‐perishable produce. Osmotic drying of green peas was carried out in ternary solutions of water, sodium chloride (NaCl), and sucrose having different solution concentrations and osmotic temperatures.

Between 2012 and 2018 we mapped near‐peak seasonal snow depths across two swaths covering 126 km2 in Northern Alaska using aerial structure‐from‐motion photogrammetry and lidar surveys. The surveys were validated by over a hundred thousand ground‐based depth measurements.

The volume of water stored in seasonal wetlands is a fundamental but difficult to measure variable for developing a physical understanding of wetland behavior. For seasonal wetlands that are a major source of water for rice and fish production, this physical understanding is key to planning for water‐food security and ecosystem services. This study quantified variations in volumetric storage for the numerous seasonal wetlands of northeastern Bangladesh, locally known as ‘haors’.

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