Research Publications (Food Safety)

Achieving SDG2 (zero hunger) in a situation of rapid global population growth requires a continued focus on food production. Farming not merely needs to sustainably produce nutritious diets, but should also provide livelihoods for farmers, while retaining natural ecosystems and services. Rather than focusing on production principles, this article explores the interrelations between farms and farming systems in the global food system.

Food allergy has become an important food safety concern affecting people’s health and quality of life. As one of the most common allergic foods, egg poses a safety hazard to susceptible individuals. Therefore, it is crucial to develop rapid and sensitive detection methods for allergen monitoring. Sandwich ELISA detection method was developed based on two polyclonal antibodies for the detection of egg white allergens in this study.

A multi-residue method was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of 39 and 33 chemical pesticides in rice using LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS, respectively. The coefficient of determination was 0.994 to 0.999 over the linear concentration range of 0.01 to 0.1 μg mL-1. The LOD and LOQ were in the range of 0.31 to 3.35 and 1.04 to 10.06 μgkg-1, repsectively.

Sensitive, simple, and rapid pathogen separation and detection methods are essential for the early diagnosis and immediate medical treatment of bacterial infections. In this study, a novel strategy based on vancomycin (Van)-modified ovalbumin (OVA) mediated magnetic nanoprobes (MBs-OVA-Van) combined with multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR) was developed for efficient isolation and detection of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Bacillus cereus (B.

The study area lies in a semi-arid setting of Brazil that comprises some of the largest scheelite mines in the country, but information regarding the mining impacts on the soil quality are relatively scarce. Here, we studied the changes in the soil physical and chemical characteristics caused by the scheelite mining activities in northeast Brazil, including the impacts on heavy metal concentrations in soils.

Inhibitor cystine knot (ICK) peptides are knotted peptides with three intramolecular disulfide bonds that affect several types of ion channels. Some are proteolytically stable and are promising scaffolds for drug development. GTx1-15 is an ICK peptide that inhibits the voltage-dependent calcium channel Cav3.1 and the voltage-dependent sodium channels Nav1.3 and Nav1.7.

The ripening process of dry-cured meat products is characterised by the development of fungi on the product’s surface. This population plays a beneficial role, but, uncontrolled moulds represent a health risk, since some of them may produce mycotoxins, such as ochratoxin A (OTA). The aim of the present work is to assess the potential of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) for the detection of OTA-producing mould species on dry-cured ham-based agar.

A number of drugs are given in drinking water in piglet farming, although this way of administering drugs leads to significant and uncontrolled variability in exposures. Three main explanations for this variability have been described in the literature: (1) the drinking behavior of animals, (2) the drug concentration in water, and (3) the inter-individual variability in the pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters.

With the intensification of human activities, plants are more frequently exposed to heavy metals (HM). Zinc (Zn) and cadmium (Cd) are frequently and simultaneously found in contaminated soils, including agronomic soils contaminated by the atmospheric fallout near smelters. The fiber crop Cannabis sativa L. is a suitable alternative to food crops for crop cultivation on these soils. In this study, Cd (20 μM) and Zn (100 μM) were shown to induce comparable growth inhibition in C. sativa.

Background: This study analyzed the antimicrobial resistance phenotypes and mechanisms of quinolone, cephalosporins, and colistin resistance in nontyphoidal Salmonella from patients with diarrhea in Jiangsu, China.

The purgaty One systems (cap+bottle) are portable stainless-steel water bottles with UV subtype C (UVC) disinfection capability. This study examines the bottle design, verifies disinfection performance against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Vibrio cholerae, and heterotrophic contaminants, and addresses the public health relevance of heterotrophic bacteria.

Production of targeted volatile fatty acid (VFA) composition by fermentation is a promising approach for upstream and post-stream VFA applications. In the current study, the bioaugmented mixed microbial culture by Clostridium aceticum was used to produce an acetic acid dominant VFA mixture. For this purpose, anaerobic sequencing batch reactors (bioaugmented and control) were operated under pH 10 and fed by cheese processing wastewater.

The dissemination of antibiotic-resistant priority pathogens beyond hospital settings is both a public health and an environmental problem. In this regard, high-risk clones exhibiting a multidrug-resistant (MDR) or extensively drug-resistant (XDR) phenotype have shown rapid adaptation at the human-animal-environment interface.

by Sihua Peng, Shuyan Yang, Xi Zhang, Jingjing Jia, Qiulin Chen, Yuyang Lian, Aqiang Wang, Bei Zeng, Heming Yang, Jinlei Li, Jianguo Dan, Jianjun Liao, Shihao Zhou

The industrialization of the agri-food industry and resultant decrease in the number of people employed on farms has contributed to a knowledge gap among consumers about food production processes. A commonly reported concern of dairy consumers is the use of antibiotics in dairy animals, even though these drugs are an important tool for promoting animal health and welfare and food safety.

Rapid and credible detection of pathogens is essential to prevent and control outbreaks of foodborne diseases. In this study, a poly-l-lysine-functionalized magnetic beads (PLL-MB) strategy combined with a PCR assay was established to detect Staphylococcus aureus. We also detected Escherichia coli O157:H7 to further verify the strategy for gram-negative bacteria detection.

Author(s): Liye Zhu, Haomiao Wang, Jieyu Yuhan, Boyang Zhang, Hongyu Li, Charles Asakiya, Kunlun Huang, Xiaoyun He, Wentao Xu

Author(s): Ziqi Liu, Shuaifeng Hu, Thanapop Soteyome, Caiying Bai, Junyan Liu, Zhe Wang, Birthe V. Kjellerup, Zhenbo Xu

Bacteriocins derived from lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are well recognized as promising food preservative due to high safety and potent antibacterial activity against foodborne pathogens and spoilage bacteria. In this study, an antimicrobial agent-producing strain FZU63 from Chinese sauerkraut was identified as Lactobacillus coryniformis based on physio-biochemical characterization and 16S rDNA sequence analysis.

The aim of this study was continuous monitoring of the presence of mcr-1 to mcr-5 genes in Enterobacterales isolated from cattle, pigs, and domestic poultry at intensive breeding facilities in Northern Vojvodina, Serbia, from 1 January 1 to 1 October 2020. Out of 2167 examined samples, mcr-1 was observed in five E. coli isolates originating from healthy turkeys. Four isolates belonged to the phylogenetic group B1, and one isolate to the phylogenetic group A. Detected E.

The development of informatic tools to improve the identification of novel antimicrobials would significantly reduce the cost and time of drug discovery. We previously screened several plant (Xanthomonas sp., Clavibacter sp., Acidovorax sp., and Erwinia sp.), animal (Avian pathogenic Escherichia coli and Mycoplasma sp.), and human (Salmonella sp.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus has emerged as a significant enteropathogen in human and marine habitats worldwide, notably in regions where aquaculture products constitute a major nutritional source. It is a growing cause of diseases including gastroenteritis, wound infections, and septicemia. Serotyping assays use commercially available antisera to identify V.