Research Publications (Food Safety)

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Summary

Cholesterol is an essential structural component of cellular membranes in eukaryotes. Cholesterol in the exofacial leaflet of the plasma membrane is thought to form membrane nanodomains with sphingolipids and specific proteins. Additionally, cholesterol is found in the intracellular membranes of endosomes and has crucial functions in membrane trafficking.

Publication date: Available online 7 March 2016


Author(s): Hyunjoon Park, Heuynkil Shin, Kyuyeon Lee, Wilhelm Holzapfel

We have assembled a collection of 13 psychrophilic ligA alleles that can serve as genetic elements for engineering mesophiles to a temperature-sensitive (TS) phenotype. When these ligA alleles were substituted into Francisella novicida, they conferred a TS phenotype with restrictive temperatures between 33 and 39°C. When the F. novicida ligA hybrid strains were plated above their restrictive temperatures, eight of them generated temperature-resistant variants.

The marine foodborne enteropathogen Vibrio parahaemolyticus has four putative catalase genes. The functions of two katE-homologous genes, katE1 (VPA1418) and katE2 (VPA0305), in the growth of this bacterium were examined using gene deletion mutants with or without complementary genes.

As a nonthermal sterilization technique, ultrasound has attracted great interest in the field of food preservation. In this study, flow cytometry and transmission electron microscopy were employed to investigate ultrasound-induced damage to Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.

The Nycteribiidae are obligate blood-sucking Diptera (Hippoboscoidea) flies that parasitize bats. Depending on species, these wingless flies exhibit either high specialism or generalism toward their hosts, which may in turn have important consequences in terms of their associated microbial community structure. Bats have been hypothesized to be reservoirs of numerous infectious agents, some of which have recently emerged in human populations.

Cover crops provide several ecosystem services, but their impact on enteric bacterial survival remains unexplored. The influence of cover cropping on foodborne pathogen indicator bacteria was assessed in five cover crop/green manure systems: cereal rye, hairy vetch, crimson clover, hairy vetch-rye and crimson clover-rye mixtures, and bare ground.

The rapid rise in DNA sequencing has led to an expansion in the number of glycoside hydrolase (GH) families. The GH43 family currently contains α-l-arabinofuranosidase, β-d-xylosidase, α-l-arabinanase, and β-d-galactosidase enzymes for the debranching and degradation of hemicellulose and pectin polymers. Many studies have revealed finer details about members of GH43 that necessitate the division of GH43 into subfamilies, as was done previously for the GH5 and GH13 families.

We have produced data and developed analysis to build representations for the concentration of spores of nonproteolytic Clostridium botulinum in materials that are used during the manufacture of minimally processed chilled foods in the United Kingdom. Food materials are categorized into homogenous groups which include meat, fish, shellfish, cereals, fresh plant material, dairy liquid, dairy nonliquid, mushroom and fungi, and dried herbs and spices.

Abstract

Aims

The objective of this work was to study the growth potential of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella spp. in leafy vegetable extracts at different temperature conditions.

Abstract

Publication date: September 2016
, Volume 67

Author(s): Honglei Zhan, Jianfeng Xi, Kun Zhao, Rima Bao, Lizhi Xiao

Publication date: July 2016
, Volume 117

Author(s): K.S. Steele, M.J. Weber, E.A.E. Boyle, M.C. Hunt, A.S. Lobaton-Sulabo, C. Cundith, Y.H. Hiebert, K.A. Abrolat, J.M. Attey, S.D. Clark, D.E. Johnson, T.L. Roenbaugh

Publication date: July 2016
Source:LWT - Food Science and Technology, Volume 70

Author(s): Lin Bi, Lei Yang, Arun K. Bhunia, Yuan Yao

Infection with Yersinia enterocolitica causes acute diarrhea in early childhood. A mouse infection model presents new findings on pathological mechanisms in the colon. Symptoms involve diarrhea with watery feces and weight loss that have their functional correlates in decreased transepithelial electrical resistance and increased fluorescein permeability. Y. enterocolitica was present within the murine mucosa of both ileum and colon.

National and industrial standards used for the certification and inspection of eggs and egg products in the People's Republic of China were reviewed. Although egg production is very high, specific egg and egg product standards are insufficient. Currently, 11 recommended standards and 6 compulsory standards are used to inspect eggs and egg products.

Uneven cooking due to consumer use of microwave ovens to cook food products that have been prepared but are not ready to eat has been a documented risk factor in several foodborne disease outbreaks. However, the use of microwave ovens in restaurants and other food service establishments has not been well documented.

The objective of this study was to verify the characteristics of food safety inspections, considering risk categories and binary scores. A cross-sectional study was performed with 439 restaurants in 43 Brazilian cities. A food safety checklist with 177 items was applied to the food service establishments.

In this study, the effectiveness of pullulan (a fungal polysaccharide) film containing oregano essential oil (OEO) at 1.0 to 10.0% was evaluated against bacteria, yeasts, and molds. The quality of the sprouts, as determined by weight loss, color, and appearance, was monitored during storage at 2 and 16°C. An organoleptic evaluation of odor preference and odor acceptability of OEO on the Brussels sprouts was also conducted.

The market for tea drinks as healthy beverages has been steadily expanding, and ready-to-drink beverages in polyethylene terephthalate bottles have been popular. To more rapidly and accurately test tea beverages bottled in polyethylene terephthalate for microbial contamination, a newly developed filtration device and a washing method with a commercial bioluminescence assay were combined to detect low numbers of bacterial spores, fungal conidia, and ascospores.

Escherichia coli O157 (EcO157) infections can lead to serious disease and death in humans. Although the ecology of EcO157 is complex, ruminant animals serve as an important reservoir for human infection. Dairy cattle are unique because they may be a source of contamination for milk, meat, and manure-fertilized crops. Foodborne dairy pathogens such as EcO157 are of primary importance to public health.

Allergies to cow's milk are very common and can present as life-threatening anaphylaxis. Consequently, food labeling legislation mandates that foods containing milk residues, including casein and/or β-lactoglobulin, provide an indication of such on the product label. Because contamination with either component independent of the other can occur during food manufacturing, effective allergen management measures for containment of milk residues necessitates the use of dual screening methods.

To estimate the effect of a low concentration of sugar on the changes in quality of lightly salted grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idellus) during storage under vacuum packaging at 4°C, we determined the sensory score, total viable counts, biochemical quality, and physical quality of fish fillets. Fish samples were left untreated, dry cured with 1.3% salt, or dry cured with 1.3% salt plus 1.0% sugar.