Research Publications (Food Safety)

Deoxynivalenol (DON) in wheat is one of the major food safety concerns worldwide. In this study, 70 characteristic precursive factors associated with environment and 6 agronomic practicing factors were explored, using historical data of 479 wheat fields in the Huang-Huai-hai, China. Results showed that DON concentrations influenced by air temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, and sunshine duration in the period from 17 days before flowering to 10 days before harvest.

Matrix effects (MEs) can heavily affect the accuracy and reproducibility of a pesticide residue analysis method, especially in complex matrices such as herbs. Therefore, it is of great importance to assess MEs of pesticides in herbal matrices. In this research, the MEs of 28 pesticides and their metabolites in five types of herbs representing different medicinal parts were evaluated by UHPLC-MS/MS analysis after QuEChERs pretreatment.

Aflatoxins have carcinogenic effect on human health, developing effective adsorbents for their enrichment and detection is particularly required. A magnetic hyper-crosslinked polymer (MHCP-TPE) was prepared and used as a magnetic sorbent to adsorb and isolate aflatoxins from rice and sorghum samples prior to high performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence detection.

In this study, an instrument for solid phase extraction of heavy metals was developed. Compared to conventional separation equipment, it has advantages of small size, less reagent consumption, time saving, easy operation, and good reproducibility. After analyzing the partition coefficient and adsorption capacity of the exchange resin, the Chelex-100 resin achieved a strong adsorption of lead at pH of 6.0.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of different concentrations of Staphylococcus (S.) xylosus protease on the proteolysis, quality characteristics, flavor development, and sensory attributes of dry sausages. The results indicated that S. xylosus protease significantly decreased (P < 0.05) the moisture content, water activity, shear force, pH value, lipid and protein oxidation of the dry sausages.

A simple, rapid and sensitive vortex-assisted magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE) method using core–shell structured magnetic covalent organic frameworks (Fe3O4/COF-TpBD) as adsorbents was established for simultaneous determination of aflatoxins, ochratoxins and enniatins in maize before high-performance chromatography tandem spectrometry detection. Fe3O4/COF-TpBD was facilely fabricated, characterized, and applied for simultaneous extraction of ten mycotoxins from maize.

A corn flour certified reference material (KRISS CRM 108-01-011) was developed to ensure accurate and reliable measurements of type B trichothecenes (deoxynivalenol, nivalenol, 3-acetyldeoxynivalenol, 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol), and deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside. The material was freeze-dried, ground, sieved, and well-mixed. The final produced CRM was packaged at 14 g per unit and stored at –70 °C.

During adverse postharvest storage of Red haricot beans, the inositol phosphate content, particularly InsP6, decreased significantly, along with a significant increase in InsP5. Using a texture-based classification approach, the InsP6 content in cotyledons was shown an indicator for the extent of hard-to-cook (HTC) development during bean aging.

Sensitive detection for deoxynivalenol (DON) should be developed due to DON as a kind of harmful mycotoxins which can poses health risk to human health even at low concentrations. In this work, an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) DON aptasensor was proposed based on Ti3C2 dots/Ti3C2 nanosheet (TDTN). Compared with Ti3C2 dots and Ti3C2 nanosheet, the ECL intensity of TDTN was 4 times of Ti3C2 dots and 2 times of Ti3C2 nanosheet as emitters.

A simple and effective approach to remove pesticide residues on vegetables is necessary for food safety. Ozone microbubbles treatment as an eco-friendly washing technique was investigated for three vegetables (celery, pakchoi and cowpea) collected from the field applied with five pesticides. The removal rates of five pesticide residues on cowpea by ozone microbubbles treatment were 15 %–47 % higher than that by ozone macrobubbles.

Mycotoxin contamination is a severe threat to global food security, thus fast and effective detection of mycotoxins is of great significance. Herein, mesoporous silica surface loaded gold nanocomposites (MSN-Rh6G-AuNPs) were prepared as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate, and the SERS aptasensor (MSN-Rh6G-AuNPs@apt) was further obtained by aptamer functionalization which can realize the quantitative and sensitive detection of zearalenone (ZEN).

We have proposed a novel electrochemical aptasensing strategy for efficiently detecting staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) based on copper-based metal–organic framework encapsulated with plenty of Cu2O nanocrystals (represented by ML-Cu2O@Cu-MOF) synthesized using the mixed ligands of diphenylethyne-3,3′,5,5′-tetracarboxylic acid, 1,3,5-benzenetricarboxylic acid, and terephthalic acid.

An electrochemical impedimetric immunosensor was constructed based on a hierarchical nanostructured CoCo Prussian blue analogue entrapped by a Zr-based porphyrin MOF (denoted by CoCoPBA@PCN-221) for the sensitive detection of deoxynivalenol (DON).

Toxicosis through food and feed has remained a point of concern to food sectors across the globe. Although strict regulations have been implemented in developed and developing countries, their detection in food matrices is an evolving science. This study focuses on the development and fabrication of an electrochemical microfluidic biosensor that deploys aptamers to detect trace concentrations of Aflatoxin-M1 (AF-M1) in milk samples.

Aflatoxin as the potent carcinogenic mycotoxin had been received great attention for detection in food industry and safety. Due to low quantity of aflatoxin in food samples, there is a need to develop a sensitive method toward its detection. In the present study, an aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) specific aptasensor with internal complementary sequence was developed for detection of AFB1.

Sustainable strategies are essential for zinc (Zn) biofortification and cadmium (Cd) reduction in staple food crops. Herein, we evaluated the phytotoxicity of Glyzinc under foliar and root application (FA&RA) in a lab-scale experiment, and then investigated its Zn efficiency and Cd reduction through foliar application on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) under field conditions.

Scallop is well known for its high accumulation of cadmium. The bioaccessibility and speciation of cadmium in different tissues of scallops during gastrointestinal digestion could influence the evaluation of its biological effects and consumption safety in humans. The bioaccessibility of total Cd ranged from 44.0% (kidney) to 90.2% (gonad) for different tissues of scallop Chlamys farreri.

Fumonisin B1 (FB1), the most occurring fumonisin, is capable of disrupting sphingolipid metabolism and poses a serious threat to human and animal health. The high incidence and toxicity of FB1 have created an urgent need for alternative quantitative determination strategies. Herein, a colorimetric aptasensor was developed by combining the catalytical metal-organic frameworks with the polyacrylamide-DNA hydrogel.

In this work, a fluorescence and colorimetric dual-mode immunoassay for detecting zearalenone (ZEN) was established. This platform relied on the dephosphorylation of p-nitrophenyl phosphate (PNPP) by alkaline phosphatase (ALP) to produce yellow p-nitrophenol (PNP). And the internal filtration effect between G-quadruplex/N-methylmesoporphyrin IX (G4/NMM) and PNP led to fluorescence quenching of G4/NMM.

The almond industry suffers product losses caused by mold growth and toxin contamination. Gaseous chlorine dioxide (ClO2) has the potential for postharvest reduction of mycotoxic Aspergillus flavus. In this study, almonds inoculated with A. flavus were fumigated with gaseous ClO2 for 1, 2, 3, 8, 12, and 24 h using a dry precursor sachet batch method. The headspace concentration ranged from 0.5-2.4 mg/L, depending on initial dosing and time.

The seasonal effect on chemical composition and contaminants in European plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) captured in Norwegian waters was investigated in three seasons (September, December, April). Fillets were compared by analysing proximate composition, lipid and protein profile, including fatty acids, lipid class distribution, free and total amino acids. Trace elements and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) were determined to assess the potential health risk of consumption.

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a powerful mycotoxin that can cause severe damage to human health, and its detection has attracted considerable attention in the field of food science. We present a robust and facile label-free colorimetric aptasensor for OTA detection using the aptamer-enhanced oxidase-like activity of MnO2 nanoflowers.

The paper outlines a procedure based on ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry and QuEChERS pretreatment for the determination of patulin in selected berries and stone fruits. The mycotoxin was determined in the positive electrospray ionization mode utilizing the formation of its methanol adduct.

In this work, the development of an analytical method for the evaluation of a wide variety of pesticide residues in cereals and pseudo-cereals widely consumed has been carried out. A QuEChERS method was used as extraction and clean-up procedure prior to separation and quantification of the target analytes by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry using a single quadrupole-time-of-flight analyser.

Multi-class antibiotic analysis in aquatic products is still challenging owing to the complex matrix and low co-extraction efficiency of various antibiotics. A facile and sensitive sample pretreatment method based on magnetic dispersive solid-phase extraction was thus developed via systematic optimization of extraction and purification procedure. The multi-class antibiotics can simultaneously be extracted by acetonitrile-2% acetic acid.