Research Publications (Food Safety)

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Mithila Ferdous, Anna M. D. Kooistra-Smid, Kai Zhou, John W. A. Rossen, Alexander W. Friedrich

K. V. Kuleshov et al.

Exposure to mycotoxin-contaminated feeds represents a serious health risk. This has necessitated the need for the establishment of practical methods for mycotoxin decontamination. This study investigated the effects of citric acid (CA) and lactic acid (LA) on common trichothecene mycotoxins in feeds contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins.

Madushini N. Dharmasena, Catherine M. Feuille, Carly Elizabeth C. Starke, Arvind A. Bhagwat, Scott Stibitz, Dennis J. Kopecko

Abstract

BACKGROUND

The recent finding of acrylamide (AA), which is formed in cooked foods, has raised human health concerns. AA is metabolized by CYP2E1 to glycidamide (GA). GA forms DNA adducts. In this study, we examined the inhibitory effects of wasabi (Japanese horseradish, Wasabia japonica) roots and leaves as well as their active component, allyl isothiocyanate (AIT), on the formation and genotoxicity of AA.

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An α-l-arabinofuranosidase (Abf) encoding gene was obtained via genomic mining from a Ruminococcus albus strain. The specific activity of this GH 51 Abf was 73.3 U/mg at pH 6.0 and 50 °C. The modification of Abf, aimed at improving thermostability, was performed through different strategies.

Andrea R. Ottesen, Sasha Gorham, Elizabeth Reed, Michael J. Newell, Padmini Ramachandran, Travis Canida, Marc Allard, Peter Evans, Eric Brown, James Robert White

Yussaira Castillo, Jin Suzuki, Kenta Watanabe, Takashi Shimizu, Masahisa Watarai

The riboflavin analogs roseoflavin (RoF) and 8-demethyl-8-aminoriboflavin (AF) are produced by the bacteria Streptomyces davawensis and Streptomyces cinnabarinus. Riboflavin analogs have the potential to be used as broad-spectrum antibiotics and we therefore studied the metabolism of riboflavin (vitamin B2), RoF and AF in the human pathogen Listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium which is a riboflavin auxotroph. We show that the L.

Publication date: 5 December 2016
, Volume 238

Author(s): Denis Butscher, Hanne Van Loon, Alexandra Waskow, Philipp Rudolf von Rohr, Markus Schuppler

Globally, the trichothecene mycotoxins deoxynivalenol (DON) and nivalenol (NIV) are among the most widely distributed mycotoxins that contaminate small grain cereals. In this study, a bacterial consortium, PGC-3, with de-epoxydation activity was isolated from soil by an in situ soil enrichment method. Screening of 14 soil samples that were sprayed with DON revealed that 4 samples were able to biotransform DON into de-epoxydized DON (dE-DON).

This study was conducted to investigate the toxic effects of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and evaluate the effects of sporoderm-broken spores of Ganoderma lucidum (SSGL) in relieving aflatoxicosis in broilers.

In China, consumers sometimes get special eggs, which are characterized by the pasty, firm, and elastic texture of yolk from hard-boiled eggs and are usually called “rubber eggs” by Chinese customers. Consumers do not like the texture of rubber eggs and often associate the odd texture of the yolk to food safety risks. The objective of this study was to assess the physical and chemical characteristics of these eggs.

Publication date: 5 December 2016
, Volume 238

Author(s): Shin Young Park, Sujin Kang, Sang-Do Ha

Giardia lamblia is a pathogen transmitted by water and food that causes infection worldwide. Giardia genotypes are classified into 8 assemblages (A–H). Assemblages A and B are detected in humans, but they are potentially zoonotic because they infect other mammalian hosts. Giardia in samples from 44 children was genotyped. Conserved fragments of the genes encoding β-giardin and glutamate dehydrogenase were sequenced and their alignment were carried out with sequences deposited in GenBank.

We examined clinical samples from Nigerian patients with acute watery diarrhea for Vibrio cholerae during the 2010 cholera outbreak. A total of 109 suspected isolates were characterized, but only 57 V. cholerae strains could be confirmed using multiplex real-time PCR as well as rpoB sequencing and typed as V. cholerae O:1 Ogawa biotype El Tor. This finding highlighted the need for accurate diagnosis of cholera in epidemic countries to implement life-saving interventions.

Norovirus full-genome sequencing is challenging due to sequence heterogeneity among genomes. Previous methods have relied on PCR amplification, which is problematic due to primer design, and transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq), which nonspecifically sequences all RNA, including host and bacterial RNA, in stool specimens.

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Hechao Du, Maoda Pang, Yuhao Dong, Yafeng Wu, Nannan Wang, Jin Liu, Furqan Awan, Chengping Lu, Yongjie Liu

Pauline Bondue, Sébastien Crèvecoeur, François Brose, Georges Daube, Marie-Christine Seghaye, Mansel W. Griffiths, Gisèle LaPointe, Véronique Delcenserie

Abstract

Abstract

The inhibition capacity of four combinations of three lactic acid bacteria (LAB) (Lactococcus lactis, Lactobacillus plantarum and Carnobacterium piscicola) has been demonstrated against Listeria monocytogenes in fresh farmed sea bass fillets artificially contaminated. The four combinations gave promising results, having a significant bacteriostatic effect against all tested microflora, during 21 days of vacuum storage at 4 °C.