Research Publications (Food Safety)

Soil Use and Management, Accepted Article. Ecological restoration refers to the gradual recovery of damaged ecosystems by utilizing their self-recovery capacity and artificial measures. It is considered as an effective technique to alleviate heavy metal pollution in open-pit mining soils. However, little is known about the stability of heavy metals and soil bacterial responses in artificially restored soil-plant systems.

Soil Use and Management, Accepted Article. The accumulation of heavy metals like cadmium (Cd) and metalloids like arsenic (As) in plants can do harm to human health through the food chain, especially through the rice (Oryza sativa L.).

Letters in Applied Microbiology, Accepted Article. Listeria monocytogenes is a typical foodborne pathogen that causes hard-to-treat bacterial infections, mainly due to its ability to form biofilm and enter into a viable but non-culturable state (VBNC). In this study, we investigated the removal effects of four antimicrobial agents on L.

Environmental Microbiology, Volume 24, Issue 2, Page 762-771, February 2022. Organoarsenicals enter the environment from biogenic and anthropogenic sources. Trivalent inorganic arsenite (As(III)) is microbially methylated to more toxic methylarsenite (MAs(III)) and dimethylarsenite (DMAs(III)) that oxidize in air to MAs(V) and DMAs(V).

Environmental Microbiology, Volume 24, Issue 2, Page 752-761, February 2022. Arsenic can be biomethylated to form a variety of organic arsenicals differing in toxicity and environmental mobility. Trivalent methylarsenite (MAs(III)) produced in the methylation process is more toxic than inorganic arsenite (As(III)). MAs(III) also serves as a primitive antibiotic and, consequently, some environmental microorganisms have evolved mechanisms to detoxify MAs(III).

Cooling deviations and temperature abuse are two main reasons leading to the risk of Clostridium botulinum outgrowth in cooked pork. The aim of this research was to create a model that could be used to estimate C. botulinum growth from spores in cooked pork at temperatures similar to those used to chill cooked pork in processing facilities and food establishments. A cocktail of proteolytic C.

Pigs are one of several host species for Toxoplasma gondii, and consumption of infected pork may lead to toxoplasmosis in humans. The aim of this study was to develop an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using surface antigen protein 1 (SAG1) of T. gondii for the diagnosis of porcine toxoplasmosis and to perform a serological investigation of pigs in Shandong province, China.

Caenorhabditis elegans is a well-established model organism for toxicity testing of chemical substances. We recently demonstrated its potential for bioanalysis of the toxic potency of chemical contaminants in water.

Cadmium (Cd) is a highly toxic metal pollutant that can endanger the life and health of animals. Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) can result in testicular cell damage by positively regulating mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) signaling pathway. Meanwhile, Testosterone (T) synthesis disorder can affect sexual behavior.

Arsenic and antimony are common toxic metalloids found in associated minerals.

Chili (Capsicum annum) and chili powder are widely consumed in south India. The inherent and eco physiological factors with unusual nutritional characteristics of chili favors the growth of molds, during harvest and post-harvest processing.

Previous research has shown that the brown seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum (ASCO) has antimicrobial and antioxidant properties and also increases milk I concentration.

Microorganisms can produce many antibiotics against bacteria and fungi, which have been used as a potential choice of new antibiotics. In this paper, we studied the characteristics of antibacterial substances by Bacillus cereus BC1. The results showed that the acid-precipitated substance played the main role in antibacterial activity, and further characterization indicated that the antibacterial substance might be a lipopeptide substance.

Iron (Fe) deficiency in plants is a common problem affecting agricultural production. Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic metal that can be taken up and transported within plants by transporters for divalent metals including Fe(II).

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) and ochratoxin A (OTA), which are occasionally detected in milk and commercial baby foods, could easily enter and reach the gastrointestinal tract, posing impairment to the first line of defense and causing dysfunction of the tissue. The objective of this study was to investigate the immunostimulatory roles of individual and combined AFM1 and OTA on the immature intestine.

Aspergillus flavus is a saprophytic fungus that can be found across the entire world. It can produce aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), which threatens human health. CreA, as the central factor in carbon catabolite repression (CCR), regulates carbon catabolism and AFB1 biosynthesis in A. flavus. Additionally, SsnF-RcoA are recognized as the corepressors of CreA in CCR.

The increasing number of nosocomial pathogens with resistances towards last resort antibiotics, like linezolid for gram positive bacteria, leads to a pressing need for screening and, consequently, suitable screening media. Some national guidelines on infection prevention (e.g., in Germany) have already recommended screening for linezolid-resistant bacteria, despite an accurate screening medium that was not available yet.

Modern microbial taxonomy generally relies on the use of single marker genes or sets of concatenated genes to generate a framework for the delineation and classification of organisms at different taxonomic levels. However, given that DNA is the 'blueprint of life', and hence the ultimate arbiter of taxonomy, classification systems should attempt to use as much of the blueprint as possible to capture a comprehensive phylogenetic signal.

Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, EarlyView. The development of antibiotic resistance is a serious public health crisis, reducing our ability to effectively combat infectious bacterial diseases. The parallel study of reduced susceptibility to sanitizers is growing, particularly for environmental foodborne pathogens, such as Listeria monocytogenes. As regulations demand a seek-and-destroy approach for L.

Baobab fruit demand has been on the rise in the recent past, and in an attempt to match the demand, farmers and middlemen are forced to harvest immature fruits which are not fully dried. To ensure an acceptable moisture content, baobab fruits are subjected to solar drying, which is a slow process and often carried out in open and unhygienic conditions raising safety concerns.

Hundreds of different fast-growing Salix hybrids have been developed mainly for energy crops. In this paper, we studied water extracts from the bark of 15 willow hybrids and species as potential antimicrobial additives. Treatment of ground bark in water under mild conditions extracted 12–25% of the dry material.

The toxicity of deoxynivalenol (DON) in healthy humans and animals has been extensively studied. However, whether the natural-low-dose DON is scatheless under unhealthy conditions, especially intestinal injury, is unknown. Infection of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is a classical intestinal injury model.

The monitorization of carcass surfaces contamination along the slaughter lines enables the verification of the slaughter operations hygiene and the good manufacturing practices. Pork meat is a common source of human non-typhoidal salmonellosis, one of the most frequently reported foodborne illnesses worldwide. This study aimed to gather data on microbial loads in carcass surfaces in two slaughterhouses, before and after evisceration.

Histamine-forming bacteria were isolated from the 70 salted fish samples bought from the town market of Guangdong Province of South China. Also, the histamine forming ability(HFA) of HFB was analyzed. There were 31 strains of HFB isolated from 36 salted fishes pickled overnight. They were identified as 6 bacteria species, including Vibrio alginolyticus , Vibrio rumoiens, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Staphylococcus xylosus, Lactococcus lactis , and Morganella morganii.

Salmonella Enteritidis growth rates in liquid whole egg have been shown to be dependent on the initial inoculum dose and on the egg product's thermal history. This study's objective is to obtain further insight into the mechanisms underlying both phenomena. First we verified that Salmonella Typhimurium ATCC 14028s cells displayed the behavior already described for S. Enteritidis cells.