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Tropane alkaloids (TAs) are secondary plant metabolites derived mainly from Solanaceae plant families, with the most virulent invasive species being Datura stramonium. Datura stramonium commonly grows in cereal fields and produce TAs (e.g., hyoscyamine and scopolamine) which may accidentally contaminate cereals (and cereal-based foods) at occasionally high levels. Dietary exposure to TAs can be toxic and depending on the dose ingested can cause outcomes ranging from anticholinergic effects to acute poisoning and death. In 2019, 315 adults became ill and another five adults died in Uganda following consumption of a "Super Cereal" (a fortified blended food) that was later confirmed to be contaminated by TAs-a scenario which provoked this holistic review on TAs in foodstuffs. Thus, this article provides information on the history, development, occurrences, exposures, and human legislative and health benchmarks for TAs. It describes control strategies for reducing TA contamination of agricultural commodities and resultant health implications following consumption of TA contaminated foodstuffs. Adequate application of food safety control measures (including maximum limits) and good practices, from the start of cereal cultivation through to the final stages of manufacturing of food products can aid in the reduction of seeing toxic plants including D. stramonium in cereal fields.

Improved understanding of the metabolites linked to the mineralization processes of nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) in soil is important for optimum management, and to realize the soil's production potential to minimize associated environmental risks. A novel approach for investigating soil with proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR) was used to detect metabolites present in 35 contrasting grassland soil types in Ireland. Soil samples were analysed for a range of chemical, biological and physical properties including mineralizable N (MN) with a 7-day anaerobic incubation (AI-7). We identified and quantified by multivariate and regression analyses seven soil metabolites related to MN, namely glucose, trimethylamine, glutamic acid, serine, aspartic acid, 4-aminohippuric acid and citric acid. Glucose explained the largest percentage of the variation in MN (R2 = 0.72). The amino acids, aspartic acid, 4-aminohippuric acid, glutamic acid and serine explained 39, 38, 27 and 19% of the variation in MN, respectively. These results suggest that a labile carbon source (seven possible metabolites) appears to be an important factor for soil microbial biomass (SMB) to regulate quantities of 7-day mineralizable N from soil organic matter N (SOM-N) pools in these grassland soils for potential plant uptake. The results also demonstrate the analytical ability of 1H NMR as a potential practical platform to analyse the complex metabolite profiles in soil related to short-term C and N mineralization. However, evaluation of 1H NMR against other analytical techniques, such as high performance anion exchange chromatography and pulsed amperometric detection (HPAEC-PAD), to profile soil metabolites is recommended. Highlights Knowledge of metabolites linked to C and N cycling in soil would help improve nutrient use efficiency. 1H NMR was investigated as a novel approach for profiling metabolites in grassland soil. Seven soil metabolites that correlated with mineralizable N were identified. 1H NMR is effective for simultaneous soil metabolite profiling, but spectral libraries need to be developed.

Milk in its natural form has a high food value, since it is comprised of a wide variety of nutrients which are essential for proper growth and maintenance of the human body. In recent decades, there has been an upsurge in milk consumption worldwide, especially in developing countries, and it is now forming a significant part of the diet for a high proportion of the global population. As a result of the increased demand, in addition to the growth in competition in the dairy market and the increasing complexity of the supply chain, some unscrupulous producers are indulging in milk fraud. This malpractice has become a common problem in the developing countries, which lack strict vigilance by food safety authorities. Milk is often subjected to fraud (by means of adulteration) for financial gain, but it can also be adulterated due to ill-informed attempts to improve hygiene conditions. Water is the most common adulterant used, which decreases the nutritional value of milk. If the water is contaminated, for example, with chemicals or pathogens, this poses a serious health risk for consumers. To the diluted milk, inferior cheaper materials may be added such as reconstituted milk powder, urea, and cane sugar, even more hazardous chemicals including melamine, formalin, caustic soda, and detergents. These additions have the potential to cause serious health-related problems. This review aims to investigate the impacts of milk fraud on nutrition and food safety, and it points out the potential adverse human health effects associated with the consumption of adulterated milk.

Toxicogenic fungal moulds have been previously identified in Irish farm silages and are known to be capable of producing mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are detrimental to animal health and performance and can be transferred through feed to animal produce. The objectives of this study were to identify and quantify the challenge posed to livestock from mycotoxins in Irish silages and determine whether conventional chemical characteristics could be used as indicators of mycotoxin occurrence. Over the 2-year period, 300 silages were sampled on 150 farms and these consisted of round-baled grass silages (n = 115) and pit silages of either grass (n = 175) or maize (n = 10). There was no significant difference in mycotoxin concentrations across silage types in either year, except for baled silage containing higher concentrations of enniatin B compared with pit silage in Year 1. Conventional chemical characteristics of silages were generally not reliable predictors for mycotoxin incidences; however, dry-matter digestibility, crude protein, fermentation products and ash did predict the incidence of enniatins and beauvericin. The incidence and concentration of the twenty measured mycotoxins were generally low and individual mycotoxin concentrations recorded were considerably lower than current EU directive or guidance thresholds. Non-regulated mycotoxins measured were similar to or lower than concentrations reported in the literature. Based on current knowledge and the concentrations of individual mycotoxins detected in this study, the challenge to Irish livestock and livestock products from animal consuming silage is generally low. However, the additive or synergistic effects of multiple mycotoxins in silage are unknown.

A four-treatment (UG-UG, UG-G, LG-G and HG-G) experiment (involving sixteen plots: 3·0 × 7·0 m) examined the effect of early spring grazing intensity on particulate phosphorus (PP) losses in surface run-off. Ten dairy cows fitted with manure collection ‘bags’ grazed during two short-term grazing events, Grazing-1 (23 February) and Grazing-2 (6 April). During Grazing-1, two treatments remained ungrazed (UG-), while treatments LG- and HG- were lightly grazed and heavily grazed respectively. At Grazing-2, three treatments were grazed to a similar intensity (-G), while one remained ungrazed (-UG). Run-off was generated at two and 16 days after Grazing-1 and Grazing-2 using rainfall simulators (40 mm h−1) and analysed for a range of P fractions. Grazing had no effect on either dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) concentrations or dissolved unreactive P concentrations (mean, 0·15 and 0·16 mg L−1 respectively) in run-off. However, PP concentrations increased (P

Pesticide use is important in agriculture to protect crops and improve productivity. However, pesticides have the potential to cause adverse human health or environmental effects, depending on exposure levels. This review examines existing pesticide legislation worldwide, focusing on the level of harmonization and impacts of differing legislation on food safety and trade. Pesticide legislation varies greatly worldwide, because countries have different requirements, guidelines, and legal limits for plant protection. Developed nations have more stringent regulations than developing countries, which lack the resources and expertise to adequately implement and enforce legislation. Global differences in pesticide legislation act as a technical barrier to trade. International parties such as the European Union (EU), Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have attempted to harmonize pesticide legislation by providing maximum residue limits (MRLs), but globally these limits remain variable. Globally harmonized pesticide standards would serve to increase productivity, profits, and trade and also enhance the ability to protect public health and the environment.

Low emission slurry spreading techniques are known to improve nitrogen use efficiency, but their impact on phosphorus (P) losses in surface runoff has received little attention. The current study was designed to examine the effect of slurry spreading technique on P losses in runoff. Twelve treatments were examined on 0.5- m by 1.0-m plots in a nominal 2 × 6 factorial design experiment. Treatments comprised grass swards at two different stages of growth, a stubble and a 4-wk regrowth, and six different slurry application treatments: control (no slurry), and slurry applied to simulate splash-plate, injection (across and down slope), and trailing shoe (across and down slope) spreading. Slurry was applied by hand (40 m ha). Rainfall simulations (40 mm h) were conducted at 2, 9, and 28 d post-slurry application. When slurry was applied to the stubble, dissolved reactive P (DRP) concentrations in runoff at Day 2 were 47 and 37% lower ( < 0.05) from the injection and trailing shoe treatments compared with the splash-plate treatment. Similarly, at Day 2, TP concentrations in runoff from the injection treatments were 27% lower ( < 0.05) than the splash-plate treatment. In contrast, application technique had no effect ( 0.05) on P concentrations in runoff following slurry application to the regrowth treatment. Phosphorus concentrations in runoff were unaffected by direction of slurry spreading (across or down) at both applications. Our results indicate that trailing shoe and injection techniques offer the potential to reduce DRP concentrations in runoff during the period immediately after slurry application.

In this study, a new screening technique for the detection of two types of oil adulterants in cold pressed rapeseed oil is investigated. The calibration models built with four different multivariate classifiers (SIMCA, PLS-DA, LDA-KNN, and LDA-SVM) are based on spectral fingerprints from either FT-IR and Raman instruments from authentic pure oils and in-house admixtures of the oils involved. When refined sunflower oil is the adulterant, both FT-IR and Raman produce effective models with high sensitivity of 86% and 93% respectively. When refined rapeseed oil is the adulterant the sensitivity decreases. This is explained by the chemical differences of the two adulterants. PLS-R quantification analysis estimates minimum detection levels of 15% (Raman) and 9% (FT-IR) when refined sunflower oil is the adulterant, and 22% (Raman) and 64% (FT-IR) when refined rapeseed oil is the adulterant. This initial study shows the potential of Raman spectroscopy to be utilized for the screening of cold pressed rapeseed oil authenticity. Practical Applications: It has been well documented in the past that high-value edible oils can be easily adulterated with lower cost oils for economic gain. Although the cold pressed rapeseed oil industry has not experienced such fraud, it would be prudent to have analytical techniques available to authenticate genuine oils quickly. This would further strengthen cold pressed rapeseed oil's reputation as a product free from substitutional fraud. These calibration models can tool the industry and regulatory bodies with a screening method to detect authenticity in realistic levels. A feasibility study regarding cold pressed rapeseed oil adulteration is investigated. Cold pressed rapeseed oil is adulterated with either refined rapeseed oil or refined sunflower oil and spectra is acquired using either Raman or FT-IR spectroscopy. A library of spectra is gathered which includes pure cold pressed rapeseed oil and cold pressed rapeseed oil admixtures of varying concentrations. Chemometric analysis is carried out on the dataset with both classification and quantification techniques. The optimum instrument-chemometric pairings for cold pressed rapeseed oil authentication are discussed.

Various chemical parameters were used to characterize a wide range of cold pressed rapeseed oils and to contrast the findings with refined rapeseed and extra virgin olive oil. There were significant differences between cold pressed rapeseed oils regarding almost all measured parameters. Volatile composition analysis showed that hexanal, 3-methyl pentane and 1-butene, 4-isothiocyanato were the most abundant compounds. There was no correlation between volatile compounds and geographical region of cold pressed rapeseed oils. French cold pressed rapeseed oils were found in exhibit significantly higher antioxidant activity levels than cold pressed rapeseed oils from other regions. Refined rapeseed oil was found to have a higher antioxidant activity but have significantly lower levels of phenolic acids (0.008 mg/kg oil) than cold pressed rapeseed oil (0.46 mg/kg oil). These phenolic acids appear to be important for oxidative stability as cold pressed rapeseed oil was more stable under heat stress than refined rapeseed oil. Olive oil was the most stable under heat stress, largely due to its comparatively high saturated fat content. Antioxidant potential, phenolic acids and peroxide values were found to be the main factors differentiating cold pressed rapeseed oil from refined rapeseed oil. Practical applications: Cold pressed rapeseed oil is a relatively new oil to the market and this study is the first to examine oils available to the British, Irish and French consumers. It shows the compositional variation of oils on the market by analyzing many parameters important for oil quality and consumer palatability. Antioxidant behavior and phenolic acid identification indicate potential health benefiting properties. This research also compares cold pressed rapeseed oils with market competitors which allows for clear comparison of these widely used edible oils. Cold pressed rapeseed oil is made by mechanically crushing rapeseeds at a low temperature, followed by filtering and bottling the oil. This work investigates the chemical composition of cold pressed rapeseed oil, along with its antioxidant capacity and stability under heat stress. Cold pressed rapeseed oil is also compared to market competitors; refined rapeseed oil and extra virgin olive oil.

Avermectins are frequently used to control parasitic infestations in many animal species. Previous studies have shown the long-term persistence of unwanted residues of these drugs in animal tissues and fluids. An immunoassay screening test for the detection and quantification of ivermectin residues in bovine milk has been developed. After an extensive extraction procedure, milk samples were applied to a competitive dissociation-enhanced lanthanide fluoroimmunoassay using a monoclonal antibody against an ivermectin-transferrin conjugate. The monoclonal antibody, raised in Balb C mice, showed cross-reactivity with eprinomectin (92%), abamectin (82%) and doramectin (16%). The limit of detection of the assay (mean + 3 SD), calculated from the analysis of 17 known negative samples, was calculated as 4.6 ng/mL. Intra- and inter-assay RSDs were determined as 11.6% and 15.8%, respectively, using a negative bovine milk sample fortified with 25 ng/mL ivermectin. Six Friesian milking cows were treated with ivermectin, three with a pour-on formulation of the drug and three with an injectable solution at the manufacturer's recommended dose rate. An initial mean peak in ivermectin residue concentration was detected at day 4 (mean level = 47.5 ng/mL) and day 5 post-treatment (mean level = 26.4 ng/mL) with the injectable form and pour-on treatment, respectively. A second peak in residue concentration was observed using the DELFIA procedure 28 days post-treatment in both treatment groups (23.1 ng/mL injectable and 51.9 ng/mL pour-on). These second peaks were not confirmed by HPLC and must at this time be considered to be false-positive results. By day 35 after treatment the mean ivermectin residue concentration of both groups fell below the limit of detection of the assay.

Summary Zeranol and two Fusarium toxins, α-zearalenol and s-zearalenol, were confirmed by gaschromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) in bovine bile samples referred to this laboratory for analysis. No evidence of zeranol abuse was found on-farm. Given the recent suggestion that zeranol might arise from the metabolism of these Fusarium toxins, and the finding of zeranol in bovine and ovine urine across the EU, it was concluded that the residues had arisen as a result of natural metabolism.

Objective Tremendous progress has been made in the ability to measure particular contaminants or veterinary drugs at very low concentrations. However, rare or previously unknown compounds, metabolites and mixtures are still presenting considerable analytical challenges, while this category in particular might be relevant in terms of food safety. In addition, the need for higher throughput screening strategies at lower costs also demands for methods in addition to chemical analysis. There is considerable development in methodology based on the interaction with bio-macromolecules or living cells or on a biological response in the exposed animal. The aim of this workshop is to provide an up-o-date and practical overview of the various analytical and biological strategies that are available to screen or detect (prior) exposure to drugs, contaminants and pollutants.

Water troughs in the lairages of three bacon factories were examined. Pigs were observed drinking from the troughs, some of which were contaminated with faeces. Some of the troughs contained detectable concentrations of sulphadimidine, and the highest concentration recorded was 17 micrograms/ml. Pigs which drank this contaminated water before slaughter could contain tissue residues of sulphadimidine above the permitted concentration.

Ten dairy cows were separated into two groups of five. One group was ear tagged with a PVC ear tag containing 8-5 g kg−1 cypermethrin in each ear. A PVC strip impregnated with the same quantity of cypermethrin was attached to the tail of each cow in the other group. The concentration of cypermethrin in hair samples from the neck, flanks and the anterior, sides and the posterior of the udder was measured for a period of 10 weeks after application. Concentrations were found to be high in those body areas nearest to the points of application, moderate on the flanks but low on the front and sides of the udder.