Research Publications (Food Safety)

We sought to identify and study the antibiofilm protein secreted by the marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. strain 3J6. The latter is active against marine and terrestrial bacteria, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical strains forming different biofilm types. Several amino acid sequences were obtained from the partially purified antibiofilm protein, named alterocin. The Pseudoalteromonas sp.

As climate change continues to stress freshwater resources, we have a pressing need to identify alternative (nontraditional) sources of microbially safe water for irrigation of fresh produce. This study is part of the center CONSERVE, which aims to facilitate the adoption of adequate agricultural water sources.

To examine how and what information is communicated via social media during an infectious disease outbreak.

by Andrey N. Pravdivtsev, Frank D. Sönnichsen, Jan-Bernd Hövener

Author(s): Mohsen Gavahian, Noelia Pallares, Fadila Al Khawli, Emilia Ferrer, Francisco J. Barba

Author(s): Luciana Guimarães Eiró, Maria Karolina Martins Ferreira, Leonardo Oliveira Bittencourt, Walessa Alana Bragança Aragão, Michel Platini Caldas de Souza, Marcia Cristina Freitas da Silva, Aline Dionizio, Marília Afonso Rabelo Buzalaf, Maria Elena Crespo-López, Rafael Rodrigues Lima

Author(s): Sabine Guth, Angelika Roth, Barbara Engeli, Dirk W. Lachenmeier, Alexander T. Cartus, Stephanie Hüser, Matthias Baum, Patrick Diel, Gerhard Eisenbrand, Jan G. Hengstler, Hans-Ulrich Humpf, Hans-Georg Joost, Alfonso Lampen, Marcel Leist, Doris Marko, Pablo Steinberg, Angela Mally, Jürg Zarn

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are major foodborne human pathogens that cause mild to hemorrhagic colitis, which could lead to complications of hemolytic uremic syndrome.  Seven serogroups, O26, O45, O103, O111, O121, O145 and O157, account for the majority of the STEC illnesses in the US.

Water use for antimicrobial intervention application for beef harvest has come under increased scrutiny in recent years in an effort to enhance water conservation during beef harvest and fabrication. This study was conducted to determine the efficacy of beef safety interventions for reducing surrogates of the Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) on beef cuts while lowering intervention-purposed water use for a Small or Very Small beef establishment.

Contaminated raw meat and meat products with Clostridioides difficile could be a vehicle to spread community-associated C. difficile infection. This study was conducted to determine the occurrence of C. difficile in pork and poultry meat samples (n=325) from retail establishments, and in edible giblet samples (n=36) from a poultry processing plant in Murcia (southeastern Spain).

Salmonella is a foodborne pathogen commonly associated with poultry products.

Growing consumer desires for clean label, “natural” products drives more meat processors to cure meat products with natural sources of nitrate or nitrite such as celery juice powder (CJP). One particular challenge for these producers is to identify safe cooling rates in CJP-cured products where extended cooling could allow growth of pathogens. USDA FSIS recently added guidelines for stabilization of meat products cured using naturally occurring nitrites, based on control of Clostridium spp .

Grocery stores handle fresh produce in large quantities daily. According to the Food and Drug Administration Food Code, food is to be stored at least 15 cm above the floor, and all foods shall be protected from any source of contamination or otherwise discarded. It is reported in the literature that dropped produce could be a potential source of microbial contamination.

Serum analysis has received much attention in regulatory analysis of food-producing animals, especially for anabolic steroids. The possibility of confirming the parent drugs with minimum metabolization enables the detection of intact steroid esters, whose identification represents unequivocal proof of drug administration. This work involved the development and validation of a quantitative LC-MS/MS method to determine 30 steroids and steroid esters in bovine serum.

Multidrug-resistant pathogens pose a serious threat to human health. For decades, the antibiotic vancomycin has been a potent option when treating Gram-positive multidrug-resistant infections. Nonetheless, in recent decades, we have begun to see an increase in vancomycin-resistant bacteria.

The chronic intake of naturally multi-mycotoxin contaminated feed by broilers with or without titers of Yeast Cell Wall Extract (YCWE, a.k.a Mycosorb A+®), was investigated. Day-old male Cobb chicks (1600 birds, 64 pens, 25 birds/pen) were randomly allocated to diets of control (CON); diet containing mycotoxins (MT); CON + 0.2% YCWE; MT + 0.025% YCWE; MT + 0.05% YCWE; MT + 0.1% YCWE; MT + 0.2% YCWE; and MT + 0.4% YCWE.

Raw goat milk was treated with a continuous mode of pulsed electric field (PEF) system, at three levels of field strength (20, 30, and 40 kV/cm) with monopolar square‐wave pulses of 5 and 10 µs treatment time. The physicochemical properties, particle size distribution, fatty acid profiling, and metal migrations of untreated and PEF‐treated goat milk were evaluated.

The categories, properties, and applications of extremophilic enzymes in food processing and food waste valorisation are covered in this review. These enzymes' ability to maintain catalytic activities under extreme conditions opens up a broad range of applications in the food industry, including starch liquefaction/saccharification, keratin degradation, production of structured lipids, deconstruction of polymers into monomers, and degradation of toxins.

This work reports an HPLC method development able to simultaneously determine perampanel and stiripentol, two third‐generation antiepileptics whose therapeutic spectrum can potentially be extended, in several mouse matrices. A salting‐out assisted liquid‐liquid extraction optimized by a design of experiments approach was adopted for samples preparation. Isopropanol and magnesium sulfate were the extraction solvent and salting‐out agent, respectively.

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are a complex group of bioactive molecules largely observed in human breast milk but also occurring in limited amounts in other mammalian milks. Advances in biotechnology have enabled production of human‐identical milk oligosaccharides (HiMOs), structurally identical molecules to HMOs found naturally in human milk, intended for addition to infant formula to more closely replicate breast milk.

ABSTRACT

The strain Pseudomonas putida BS3701 was isolated from soil contaminated with coke by-product waste (Moscow Region, Russian Federation). It is capable of degrading crude oil and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The P. putida BS3701 genome consists of a 6,337,358-bp circular chromosome and two circular plasmids (pBS1141 with 107,388 bp and pBS1142 with 54,501 bp).

The use of bacteriophages as antimicrobial agents represents a promising alternative for the control of pathogenic bacteria. Here, we present the complete genome sequences of two novel Salmonella enterica lytic bacteriophages, NBSal006 and NBSal007, candidates for Salmonella biocontrol.

by Huaicheng Zhang, Aimin Li, Kaiqin Bian, Shanqi Shen, Peng Shi

Author(s): Stefani Machado Lopes, Danielle Carmo da Silva, Eduardo César Tondo