Research Publications (Food Safety)

Waste Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are one of the most valuable and recycled components of electronic waste due to the presence of precious metals such as copper, silver, gold and palladium. The rejects of the PCB recycling process, named non-metal fraction (NMF) have continuously been sent to landfills. Several researchers have proposed alternative use of NMF as secondary materials such as fillers in composites or as adsorbent.

Food safety has always been critical to public health and the economic development of civilization. In the United States, the exposé by Upton Sinclair on the conditions in meat-packing houses in a book entitled The Jungle was the primary impetus that resulted in the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906; this activity established the Bureau of Chemistry which in 1930 was renamed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Due to the importance of a rapid determination of patients infected by multidrug resistant bacteria, we evaluated two rapid diagnostic tests for the detection of third-generation cephalosporins (3GC)-resistant Enterobacterales directly from positive blood cultures within 1 h: BL-REDTM (electrochemical method) and β-LACTATM test (chromogenic method).

Background:Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite of worldwide importance but its burden in indigenous communities remains unclear. In French Guiana, atypical strains of T. gondii originating from a complex rainforest cycle involving wild felids have been linked to severe infections in humans. These cases of Amazonian toxoplasmosis are sporadic and outbreaks are rarely described. We report on the investigation of an outbreak of acute toxoplasmosis in a remote Amerindian village.

We compared the consistency, accuracy and reproducibility of next-generation short read sequencing between ten laboratories involved in food safety (research institutes, state laboratories, universities and companies) from Germany and Austria. Participants were asked to sequence six DNA samples of three bacterial species (Campylobacter jejuni, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella enterica) in duplicate, according to their routine in-house sequencing protocol.

by Jun-feng Zhang, Bai Wei, Se-Yeoun Cha, Ke Shang, Hyung-Kwan Jang, Min Kang

by Roderick Salvador, Neil Tanquilut, Rosemarie Macmac, Kannika Na Lampang, Warangkhana Chaisowwong, Dirk Pfeiffer, Veerasak Punyapornwithaya

by Yanan Li, Ren Wang, Zhengxing Chen, Xiuping Zhao, Xiaohu Luo, Li Wang, Yongfu Li, Fei Teng

Non-aureus staphylococci (NAS) are predominantly isolated from bovine milk samples of quarters suffering from subclinical mastitis. They are also abundantly present on dairy cows' teat apices and can be recovered from bovine fecal samples, as recently described. Differences in ecology, epidemiology, effect on udder health, and virulence or protective traits have been reported among the species within this group.

Predictions of drug residues in milk are critical in food protection and are a major consideration in the economics of treatment of mastitis in dairy cows. Nonlinear mixed-effects modeling (NLME) has been advocated as a suitable pharmaco-statistical method for the study of drug residues in milk. Recent developments in physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling of intramammary drugs allow the combination of a mechanistic description of milk pharmacokinetics with NLME methods.

by Yan Corrêa Rodrigues, Ismari Perini Furlaneto, Arthur Henrique Pinto Maciel, Ana Judith Pires Garcia Quaresma, Eliseth Costa Oliveira de Matos, Marília Lima Conceição, Marcelo Cleyton da Silva Vieira, Giulia Leão da Cunha Brabo, Edilene do Socorro Nascimento Falcão Sarges, Luana Nepomuceno Godim Costa Lima, Karla Valéria Batista Lima

Authentication of dairy and meat products is important to ensure fair competition, consumer benefit, and food safety. The large difference in price between camel and cow milk may be an incentive to adulterate camel dairy products with cow-derived foodstuffs. However, no studies so far have used triplex real-time PCR with an endogenous control to identify camel and cow origins in dairy and meat products.

Author(s): Xu Zhang, Li Ling, Zhiyong Li, Jufang Wang

Author(s): Jungtae Na, Esther Lee, Yu-jin Kim, Mi Ji Choi, Su-Young Kim, Jeong Sun Nam, Bum Jin Yun, Beom Joon Kim

To reduce the use of conventional chemical pesticides, naturally occurring biopesticides such as bacteriophages have emerged as a promising solution, but effectiveness of these biopesticides can be limited because of their UV and desiccation instability. This study developed a biopolymer formulation to improve the phage stability, enhance the antimicrobial activity of phages, and prevent bacterial contaminations on a leaf surface in the presence of UV-A.

Staphylococcal enterotoxins are the most common cause of foodborne intoxications (staphylococcal food poisoning) and cause a wide range of diseases. With at least six variants staphylococcal enterotoxin C (SEC) stands out as particularly diverse amongst the 25 known staphylococcal enterotoxins. Some variants present unique and even host-specific features.

Over the years the growth and health of food-producing animals have been enhanced by the use of antibiotics. These have helped reduce on-farm mortalities, lower incidences of diseases and more importantly improve productivity. Generally, the utilization of antibiotics in feed has been reevaluated since bacterial pathogens have established and shared a variety of antibiotic resistance mechanisms that can easily be spread within microbial communities.

Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The treatment of HCV infection has become more complicated due to various genotypes and subtypes of HCV. Treatment of HCV has made significant advances with direct‐acting antivirals. However, for the choice of medicine or the combination of drugs for hepatitis C, it is imperative to detect and discriminate the crucial HCV genotypes.

Background and Aims Ozonated water has been used in vineyards to reduce the use of pesticides because of its presumed efficacy in the control of fungal diseases and the absence of residues. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of ozonated water treatments on the composition of grapes. Methods and Results Ozonated water was applied to grapevines of Vitis vinifera cv. Cabernet Sauvignon throughout the season.

In this study, the rainbow trout was stored for 18 days. Changes in the resistance levels in head, meat and eyes, changes of color and odor in the head and meat, changes of liquid levels in the skin and meat, were measured with Arduino. Study showed that the resistance value on the meat decreased as the storage period increased; and that the color, odor and liquid level measurement sensors could be used in identifying the food quality.

Variation in inter‐human attractiveness to mosquitoes, and the preference of mosquitoes to bite certain regions on the human host, are possible avenues for identifying lead compounds as potential mosquito attractants or repellents.

In the last years, multidimensional liquid chromatography technique became very widespread for the complete separation of non‐volatile analytes in complex matrices. The main advantage of these techniques, especially when coupled with mass spectrometry, is the enhancement of separation power or peak capacity, due to an increase in selectivity and sensitivity of the two systems.

Shiga‐toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) is a major bacterium responsible for disease resulting from foodborne infection, including bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). STEC produces important virulence factors such as Shiga toxin (Stx) 1 and/or 2. In the STEC family, some Locus for Enterocyte Effacement (LEE)‐negative STEC produce two different types of cytotoxins, Stx2 and Subtilase cytotoxin (SubAB).

BACKGROUND The contamination of milk by antibiotic residues represents risks to the health of the consumers, therefore they should be monitored.

Over the last decade, electrolyzed water (EW) produced by salt and tap water has gained importance due to its antimicrobial effects. Regarding to chlorine-based compounds, EW also used in post-harvest safety of food processing and sterilization of surfaces. The latest studies suggested that EW might act as wound healing agent due to anti-infective and cell proliferative properties.