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Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical used in the production of polycarbonate plastics and for lining metal cans, used in canned foods. BPA is a well-known endocrine disrupting chemical, it therefore, is very hazardous to human health. BPA levels were determined in three brands of canned tomatoes (Gino, Super Mama, Derica) as sold in Nigerian markets. The samples were analyzed using solvent extraction, separation and quantitation by gas chromatography- mass spectrometric method. The recovery value for BPA in the method was 89% with the relative standard deviations of 3%.The BPA concentration in the samples ranged from 0.124 to 0.141 (), which are higher than the European Food Safety Authority Specific Migration Limit (SML) of 0.05 mg/kg in food sample. The samples analyzed in this work may be, therefore, of a potential health concern to the consumers.

The study of Cannabis sativa (L.) is growing in importance due to the many medicinal and pharmacological benefits of the plant. These benefits are exhibited by its most abundant constituents, the cannabinoid and terpene molecules. Cannabis-based products can be found in many different shapes and forms, such as raw plant material and extracts, which can be consumed by themselves or prepared in different ways to make them more attractive for human consumption. Among the breadth of these products, the most challenging to analyze are edibles due to the complexity of the matrices, which vary among recipes and can potentially require a myriad of sample preparation and cleanup techniques before analysis. The consumption of edibles has rapidly increased due to increased availability, ease of use, and reduced adverse health effects relative to smoking. Even so, some authorities are moving to ban edibles because of the difficulty associated with their quality control. Different extraction techniques may be required based on the type of matrix and the possible related interferences present. Here, the most common techniques for food sample preparation are reviewed, with an eye towards their use for analysis of cannabis edibles.

Food being an excellent source of nutrients, serves as a favorite habitat for microorganisms. These microorganisms can be either beneficial or detrimental. They can bring about the spoilage of food or help in fermentation. Hence, in-depth study of the microbial ecology of food is necessary. This can be achieved by high-throughput and cost-effective next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods which can sequence the microbial nucleic acid isolated directly from the given food sample. These are culture-independent and hence even have the advantages of studying organisms which are otherwise undetectable using traditional culture-based methods. In this chapter, short descriptions of currently used NGS technologies are provided. Also discussed is how these techniques can be used to examine the microbial diversity of food. Applications and future perspectives of these high-throughput sequencing techniques in studying food microbiology are also presented.

Electronic Nose is one of a number of technological models that can be harnessed to its full potential using Machine Learning. It has the ability to predict whether a specific food sample is rotten or not based on the gases released by the food sample. In this paper, we have discussed how we have been able to achieve accurate predictions with a specific food sample being spoilt or not by training the model on previously recorded data and testing it on unseen data using supervised classification models. By using a number of popular Machine Learning models like K-Nearest Neighbor, Support Vector Machine, Random Forest ensemble and Logistic Regression to train and predict the results, we have been able to predict the best and accurate result which will provide a real-life solution to an age-old problem of detecting whether a food sample is rotten or not. In this work, Python is used as the software tool.

International audience; Enteric viruses cause the majority of foodborne illnesses and common symptoms of many foodborne illnesses include vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever. Among the enteric viruses, human Norovirus (NoV) and hepatitis virus (HAV and HEV) are the main viruses suspected to cause foodborne outbreaks and represent a serious public health. The study presents survey tools of viruses in a wide variety of foodstuffs and results obtained during 56 foodborne outbreaks investigation in France between 2012 and 2017. 246 suspected foods were examined for the presence of four human enteric viruses (NoV GI and NoV GII, HAV or HEV) either using methods described in the EN ISO 15216-1 or in house methods. All viral analysis of food samples were performed with the implementation of process control and an external amplification controls. Eighteen of 56 foodborne outbreaks investigated included at least one positive food sample (16/18 NoV, 1/18 HAV and 1/18 HEV). The genomic levels of four viruses detected ranged from < 102 to 107 genome copies per g or per L. This study showed the interest to develop methods for the extraction of viruses in different foodstuffs to increase the possibility to identify the association between viral illness and food consumption.

At present, the issue of food safety is gradually rising as the focus of people’s attention, and the comprehensive testing of food safety also has higher requirements. In recent years, food safety testing has achieved remarkable results, but there are still some problems of one kind or another. Food safety testing is closely related to people’s welfare, life and health. Therefore, food safety testing must be carried out comprehensively to ensure the safety level of food quality, so as to protect the vital interests of the people. This paper mainly evaluates and measures how to improve the accuracy of food safety samples, and studies through a parallel classification algorithm. In this paper, the accuracy of food testing is an important basis for increasing effective food supply and ensuring food quality and safety. By using Spark framework to analyze the market trend of food testing industry, it can provide a basis for expanding the market scale, clarifying the market competition pattern and developing testing technology. In this paper, synthetic sampling algorithm is also used to analyze the influencing factors and causes of the accuracy of food detection, and to propose strategies to improve the current food sample detection methods.

Foodborne diseases arise from Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) and Salmonella typhimurium (S. typhimurium) are global public health problems, influencing both developing and developed countries. Therefore, their rapid and accurate detection is of much concern in food safety and point-of-care diagnostics. In this study, a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based lateral flow assay (LFA) for simultaneous detection of them was developed. Under optimal conditions, the proposed assay showed good linear responses in the ranges of 102–107 cfu/mL and 102–107 cfu/mL with limits of detection of 75 cfu/mL and 75 cfu/mL, respectively, for L. monocytogenes and S. typhimurium, respectively. The practicality of the LFA in real food sample (milk) was also validated. Overall, the proposed assay is promising and has a good chance to be employed for multiple pathogen detection in food products.

A food texture evaluation method using a magnetic food texture sensor is proposed for the visualization of food texture. The food texture sensor measures two time-series waves, one of force and one of vibration, during fracture of a food sample. Twenty profiles were extracted from the two waves. The evaluation method selected the profiles to use in the logistic model and determined the coefficients of the model based on the results of sensory tests. Laboratory experiments confirmed that the logistic model evaluated the food textures as radar charts. In addition, the model can potentially evaluate the food textures of unknown foods.

Background Food contaminants are a threat to agriculture, the food chain, and consequently human health. Traditional analytical methods for food safety usually have limitations in achieving quick on-site detection of contaminants in large food samples. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop sensitive, simple, and reproducible methods for the on-site detection of food contaminants. Aptamer-based biosensors have attracted increasing attention owing to their superior performance, simplicity, and sensitivity. Scope and approach Among aptamer-based biosensors, optical and electrochemical biosensors have been constructed for the detection of pesticides and veterinary drugs, such as acetamiprid, organophosphorus pesticides, and various antibiotics, which are together the cause of serious food pollution. Food sample preparation techniques pertaining to testing contaminants in food samples by using those aptasensors are briefly discussed. Additionally, the various nanomaterials and nanocomposites used in the sensing platform are described, to show the good effect of the currently employed means of generating and amplifying sensing signals to improve sensitivity and accuracy of detection. Key findings and conclusions This review provides an overview of the latest advances in the sensing principles of aptamer-based biosensors, such as fluorescent, colorimetric, and electrochemical measurement methods. Recently, using the subsistent aptamers with affinity for food contaminants, optical aptasensors play an important role in detection assays to achieve easier observation and operation with an inexpensive instrument, while electrochemical aptasensors have the advantage of being sensitive, accurate, and less time-consuming. These detection methods provide a meaningful reference for monitoring food safety. The advantages and challenges of aptamer-based biosensors for food contaminant detection are described.

Studies found that deep fried starchy foods may contain potential compound to increase cancer risk known as acrylamide. Identification of acrylamide health risk assessment in deep fried starchy food among students in Kolej Tun Syed Nasir, Kuala Lumpur was investigated. A survey was conducted to obtain data on types of deep fried starchy food preferred by the subjects, the food source, intake frequency and also the serving size. Acrylamide in the food sample was quantified using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Based on this study, the estimated acrylamide intake are 0.042 µg/kg/day for fries, 0.012 µg/kg/day for fried banana, 0.129 µg/kg/day for fried sweet potato and 6.101 µg/kg/day for the coated fried chicken, while the acrylamide level in anchovies’ fritter cannot be detected (N/A). Based on the hazard quotient (HQ) calculated, the intake of french fries, fried banana and fries sweet potato do not give a significant health risk (HQ < 1). However, for the coated fried chicken, the HQ value is more than 1 which could possibly cause a health risk. Based on individual excess lifetime cancer risk (IELCR) calculated, the deep fried starchy food intake cancer risk of coated fried chicken is higher (3x10 -2 ) compared to fried sweet potato (5.81x10 -4 ), french fries (1.89x10 -4 ) and anchovies fritter (5.4x10 -5 ). The students’ intake of coated fried chicken can give a significant health risk compare to other tested food, however in term of cancer risk, all of the tested food give a high number of probability of increased risk of cancer. DOI : http://dx.doi.org./10.17576/JSKM-2018-1602-14

Porcine adulteration of food is objectionable to a sizeable percentage of the global population owing to health concerns and/or religious faiths. However, unintentional or intentional porcine adulteration is common in the food industry - for which a strong demand prevails for a fast and sensitive method to detect and quantify porcine DNA in foods. In this study, we are reporting the development of a real-time qPCR assay based on the novel ZEN™ probe for the fast and sensitive detection of porcine DNA in real food samples. The assay's specificity to porcine DNA was confirmed against nine species. Standard curve was developed and sensitivity of the assay was tested with six ten-fold dilutions of the DNA standard. Our novel assay successfully detected as low as 1 pg/μl of porcine DNA and as low as 0.001% pork in the raw pork-chicken binary mixture.

The recent horse meat scandal that rocked Europe in early 2013 shows how important it is for the routine food control authorities to constantly evolve analytical tools for the accurate evaluation of meat products among others, to ensure that product declaration and actual composition correlate. While in most cases qualitative detection approaches suffice for product evaluation, in other cases a quantitative analysis is important to distinguish between inadvertent contamination and deliberate adulteration. In this work an optimized real-time qPCR-based approach is presented and compared with another real-time based method for the detection of equine sequences among others in meat products. The method is a multiplex system for the simultaneous quantification of horse, beef, pork and sheep fractions, and was validated for use in the routine analysis of meat products. We describe a modular multiplex approach, where a quadruplex system (without sheep) and a pentaplex assay (with an integrated sheep detection system) can be applied in meat detection and quantification strategies. The analysis is matrix independent and relies on concomitant quantification of the animal species present in the food sample against the backdrop of myostatin, a universal sequence present in most mammalian and poultry species. The limit of detection of the analytical method was 10 genome copy equivalents. For validation of the method, meat samples comprising differing meat compositions were analysed, and the assay performed well in terms of robustness and reproducibility.

There is abundant evidence that cooking reduces the level of nutrients in foods, but the reductions are exacerbated by among other factors the type of cooking pot used. We conducted a research to determine the influence of various cooking pots on macro and micronutrients of cooked foods. Seven pots and five types of food stuffs were used for the study. The cooking pots used included unpitted aluminum, pitted aluminum, stainless steel, titanium, enamel coated, clay (earthen) and iron-cast while the food stuff were chosen from the major classes of food as to include tubers (yam), cereals (rice), fleshy (beef), vegetables (tomato) and legumes (cowpea). Cooking pot forged from titanium offered best (up to 87.7%) protection (retention) of micronutrients while pitted aluminum pot offered the least retention irrespective of the food sample cooked. Significant portions of food micro nutrients namely vitamin C, vitamin A and selenium were mostly affected compared with the macro nutrients. In the course of our investigations we observed that titanium and enamel coated cooking pots required less quantity of water to get food done. The use of less water to cook transmitted to low (69.67%) moisture content of food cooked in such pots compared to values as high as 76.89% when other pots were used. Food cooked with less water may impact better taste to food since the food is expected to be more nutrient-dense; having considerable lower moisture content. Our research evidenced that cooking pot can have a strong impact on people's morbidity since some pots can aggravate hidden hunger, that is, micronutrient malnutrition. Hidden hunger is a subtle enemy that drains away health and vitality unnoticed until it is too late to reverse. It is crucial to state here that our findings may have turned on its head the previous idea of using pressure pot to cook food. Pots that offered low-pressure cooking (80°C/0.48 bar) was found to preserve the most heat liable (vitamin C and volatiles) nutrients probably because of the lower water boiling temperature and reduced level of oxygen. Our conclusion and recommendation, therefore, is the use of titanium and enamel surface coated cooking pots which offered better protection of food micronutrients among other cooking pots tested. This is a piece of information that is quite vital and beneficial to food consumers, manufacturers of cook wares, operators and key players in the food processing industry.

The involvement of children in sensory evaluation and consumer research continues to increase and has become crucial in the food industry, as children sensory perceptions differ from adults. Research on basic taste sensitivity in children provides contradictory results, with most of the studies not considering the familiarity aspect of the food samples. Familiarity can lead children to memories of the food which are able to influence their taste perception and liking. This study aims to investigate the ability of 10 to 11-year old children in identifying sweetness, saltiness, sourness, and bitterness in unfamiliar food samples. The taste identification data was collected from 98 children using 19 food samples representing the four basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. For each food sample, the children evaluated their familiarity, the basic taste(s) they perceived using the checkall- that-apply (CATA) method and scored their liking. Their basic taste identification ability was investigated by comparing their results to trained panellists as a reference. The food samples were unfamiliar to most of the children (never tasted by 85% of the children on average). Correspondence Analysis (CA) showed that children were able to identify the basic tastes of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter in the unfamiliar foods, with a high congruency to the trained panellists. However, children’s identification ability was lower when combinations of dominant basic tastes occurred. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) demonstrated a positive correlation between the presence of sweet taste and the children’s liking while sour and bitter tastes showed the opposite

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in processed food have been a topic of concern for the past 60 years. Several advancements have been made towards understanding their toxicity, formation, occurrence and detection, risk assessment and legislative guidelines. Still, the research field is facing several challenges starting from general challenges such as lack of data on oral toxicity and direct effect on the human body, using toxic equivalency factors from coal tar mixtures for food etc., to specific challenges such as diversity in processing of food products, matrix-interferences, PAH solubility and clean-up requirements. Furthermore, use of non-environmentally friendly solvents and non-/semi-automatized processes, ambiguity in reported PAHs and consumption data, and different risk assessment approaches are problematic. Besides these challenges, this chapter discusses the lack of detailed mechanisms for PAH formation in processed food, analysis of PAH derivatives and process by-products, lack of diagnostic ratios for source-apportionment and food regulations. Standardization of food products and processes, designing cooking tools, model development, initial food sample screening, rapid contaminant detection, identification of hidden influential factors and establishing an international platform for discussion of the research needs are some recommendations. A focus on these will further enhance our cognizance and insight about these toxic compounds in processed food products.

Microbial concentrations of thermally processed foods are mostly low. Recently we proposed a stochastic method based on the MPN technique for estimating microbial concentration in a food product whose concentration is low. Namely, with the number of target pathogen-positive samples in the total samples of a food product by a qualitative examination, the concentration of the target microbe in the product was estimated with the stochastic method. However the credible interval of the estimate with the method was not yet studied. Also the method was not validated with foods yet. The present study showed the 95% credible interval of the estimation by the method with the maximum likelihood analysis. Also the present study showed the reliability of the method experimentally by using a powdered formulae for infants product and a liquid food model injected with Salmonella cells. This method could estimate as low as seven and two cells/1,000 g or 1,000 mL, respectively. Next, the estimated concentrations and 95% credible intervals of Enterobacteriaceae in fresh meat for eating raw were demonstrated at various Enterobacteriaceae-positive numbers of the sample with the present method. Further, the characteristics of the present method on the sample size and the aliquot of sample were clarified. These results suggested that the present method could be a good tool to verify microbiological safety of food products.

This article contains data related to the research article entitled “A case study to determine the geographical origin of unknown GM papaya in routine food sample analysis, followed by identification of papaya events 16-0-1 and 18-2-4” (Prins et al., 2016) [1]. Quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) with targets that are putatively present in genetically modified (GM) papaya was used as a first screening to narrow down the vast array of candidates. The combination of elements P-nos and nptII was further confirmed by amplification and subsequent sequencing of the P-nos/nptII construct. Next, presence of the candidate GM papayas 16-0-1 and 18-2-4 were investigated by amplification and sequencing of event-spanning regions on the left and right border. This data article reports the Cq values for GM elements, the nucleotide sequence of the P-nos/nptII construct and the presence of GM papaya events 18-2-4 and/or 16-0-1 in five samples that were randomly sampled to be analysed in the framework of the official Dutch GMO monitoring program for food.

Food safety issues are a great concern of the international community. Many methods to analyze and detect food contaminants have been widely researched because both biological and chemical contaminants in food can cause severe damage to human health. Several adsorbent materials have been utilized in the complicated procedure of food sample pretreatment. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) present enormous application potential due to their tailorable skeletons and pores and fascinating features. In this review, recent applications of COF-based adsorbents for the extraction and analysis of food contaminants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, biogenic amines, pesticides, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, heavy metal ions, illegal additives, and biotoxins, from complex samples are summarized. Current challenges and future prospects are also discussed.

A novel sensor system for food authentication is presented, which is based on computer vision and pattern recognition. The sensor system uses a smartphone to generate a sequence of light with varying colours to illuminate a food sample, and uses the smartphone camera to receive reflected light by way of recording a video. The video is processed using computer vision techniques and transformed into sensor data in the form of a data vector. The sensor data is analysed using pattern recognition techniques. The locally weighted partial least squares regression method is extended for classification to improve the modelling effectiveness and robustness. The sensor system is evaluated on the task of authentication of olive oil and milk – to verify how they are labelled. Large quantities of olive oil and milk were purchased from supermarkets, and sensor videos were created using the sensor system. Test accuracies of 96.2% and 100% were achieved for olive oil and milk authentication respectively. These results suggest the proposed sensor system is effective. Since the sensor system is built in a smartphone, it has the potential to serve as a low-cost and effective solution for food authentication and to empower consumers in food fraud detection.

In recent years, microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) has attracted growing interest, as it is an effective method for the rapid extraction of a number of trace organic pollutants from food and environmental samples, due to advantages in facilitating on-line measurements, high efficiency, and significantly lower extraction time and solvent consumption than classical techniques. This review describes recent advances of MAE from the perspective of green analytical chemistry, and summarizes the main results in applications published in the period 2008–14. Finally, we compare the performance of this technique to that of traditional extraction and other recent techniques.

During the summer of 2013, an increase of Salmonella enterica ssp. enterica serovar Szentes isolates from human clinical cases was registered by the Swiss National Centre for Enteropathogenic Bacteria and Listeria. In the course of the ensuing 9 months, 18 isolates originating from 13 patients and from one food sample were collected. Of the 13 human cases, 10 (77%) were female. The patients' ages ranged from 27 to 83 years (median age 49 years). Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) performed with XbaI, and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) were used to type the strains. PFGE as well as MLST showed the strains as indistinguishable. The PFGE pattern and MLST sequence type (ST427) were identical to those of Salmonella enterica serovar Szentes isolated in previous years (2002-2013) from sporadic cases in Switzerland and Germany. The increased isolation frequency continued for 6 months after the detection of Salmonella Szentes in sprouts. No common food exposure could be established. Due to lack of information on the potential food source, further investigations were not possible. The outbreak of this unusual serotype was detected because of its temporal clustering.

Escherichia coli O157:H7, Staphylococcus aureus, and Salmonella are food-borne pathogens that cause serious gastrointestinal illness and frequent food safety accidents. This study aimed to develop a practical multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR) technique for the simultaneous detection of these food-borne pathogens in culture broth and artificial food matrix. Pathogen-specific DNA sequences in the rfbE, nuc, and invA genes were used as targets to design primers for the identification of E. coli O157:H7, S. aureus, and Salmonella, respectively. As expected, the method produced species-specific bands of amplified products without any contaminating non-specific bands. The highest species specificity was established with primer concentrations of 0.1, 0.2, and 0.4 μM for E. coli O157:H7, S. aureus, and Salmonella, correspondingly. The detection sensitivity of this assay was 103 CFU/mL in culture broth, and the limit of detection was consistent with singleplex PCR in the food sample. The mPCR assay proposed here is an easy and convenient detection method, which will be valuable for microbial epidemiology and food safety investigations.

The ability to analyze food safety and quality in a quick, sensitive, and reliable manner is of high importance in food industry. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), which is popular for its significant enhancement, excellent sensitivity, and the fingerprinting ability to identify special molecules, has shown vast potential for rapid detection of chemical constitutes, chemical contaminants, and pathogens in food sample. For SERS, the enhancement of Raman signals is related to not only the SERS-active substrates, but also the interactions between sample and substrates. In the current review, colloidal and solid surface-based substrates are briefly described, fabrication techniques for SERS substrates are presented, and applications of SERS for food matrixes, correlation between substrates and food samples are also introduced. Finally, some outlook on further developments is presented. The current review is therefore intended to provide a comprehensive overview on the nanofabrication of SERS substrates, and the potential of applying SERS as an important food analysis platform.

Chloropropanols are heat-induced food toxicants that recently caused concern among industrial and scientific experts. World and European organizations related to food safety asked researchers to investigate mitigation strategies regarding these contaminants. The essential objective of this project was development of fast analytical methods enabling reliable determination and quantification of 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol, 2-monochloropropane-1,3-diol and 1,3-dichloropropanol. There are now several widely applied methods, which meet the requirements to some extent, but they involve a multi-step sample-preparation process, rather undesirable in routine analysis. The solution seems to be application of modern extraction techniques, especially combined with derivatization, which may lead to shortening and simplifying the whole procedure. We present the advantages of possible options for determination of chloropropanols by summarizing methods already developed involving techniques such as solid-phase microextraction, magnetic solid-phase extraction, pressurized liquid extraction or dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction.

Listeria is represented by ten known species, comprising pathogenic and non-pathogenic variants. Listeria monocytogenes is the type species and is primarily pathogenic to humans and causes serious illness. As a result, most countries have a zero tolerance towards the presence of Listeria in foods. Therefore, in order to ensure food safety, robust techniques for detection are required. This paper describes a proof-of-concept application of a metabolomic technique for the rapid detection of Listeria , applied to nutrient media and a complex food sample (milk) inoculated with a pathogenic Listeria strain ( L. monocytogenes ). It was found that a profile of intracellular and extracellular metabolites associated with L. monocytogenes could be obtained using gas chromatography coupled to orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-oaToFMS). Chemometric analysis showed that it is possible to differentiate between the uninoculated samples and samples inoculated with Listeria based on L. monocytogenes metabolic activity. This research demonstrates that metabolomics has the potential for rapidly identifying food contaminated with Listeria and could provide a means for enhancing monitoring programmes and ensuring food safety.

Major advances in the field of chemometrics combined with the use of vibrational spectroscopy have proven essential for the identification and quantification of food contaminants. These techniques, which have guided the work of regulatory agencies overlooking the food industry, can be readily applied to monitor food processing, quality control, and quality assurance. These processes can ensure product authenticity with respect to variety, geographical origin, and presence or absence of contaminants. Food analysis by vibrational spectroscopy provides overall chemical composition of the tested food sample; therefore, it is widely considered to be a highly reliable and empirical fingerprints of that samples. In 2008, melamine adulteration of milk powder in China resulted in devastatingly adverse effects for both consumers and the overall Chinese economy at large. As a result, regulatory agencies have markedly increased their interest in using fast, reliable, and accurate methods for identifying food contaminants. In this article, we provide a detailed overview of the uses of vibrational spectroscopy methods and chemometrics for the detection and quantification of melamine in dairy products.

We developed and validated a novel lateral flow assay for the detection of crustacean protein in processed foods. This assay had high sensitivity; the visual detection limit for shrimp protein extract was 25 μg/L, equivalent to 1 μg/g protein in a food sample, and results could be obtained within 20 min without sophisticated procedures or expensive equipment. Concordance between our assay and another validated quantitative enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was 97% for commercially processed foods. This assay is rapid, simple, reliable, and highly correlated with validated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays and is thus suitable for monitoring of food products, especially in food-processing facilities.

Case Description—In April 2012, Salmonella enterica serotype Infantis was detected in an unopened bag of dry dog food collected during routine retail surveillance. PulseNet, a national bacterial subtyping network, identified humans with Salmonella Infantis infection with the same genetic fingerprint as the dog food sample. Clinical Findings—An outbreak investigation identified 53 ill humans infected with the outbreak strain during January 1 to July 5, 2012, in 21 states and 2 provinces in Canada; 20 (38%) were children ≤ 2 years old, and 12 of 37 (32%) were hospitalized. Of 21 ill people who remembered the dog food brand, 12 (57%) reported a brand produced at a plant in Gaston, SC. Traceback investigations also identified that plant. The outbreak strain was isolated from bags of dry dog food and fecal specimens obtained from dogs that lived with ill people and that ate the implicated dry dog food. Treatment and Outcome—The plant was closed temporarily for cleaning and disinfection. Sixteen brands involving > 27,000 metric tons (> 30,000 tons) of dry dog and cat food were recalled. Thirty-one ill dogs linked to recalled products were reported through the FDA consumer complaint system. Clinical Relevance—A one-health collaborative effort on epidemiological, laboratory, and traceback investigations linked dry dog foods produced at a plant to illnesses in dogs and humans. More efforts are needed to increase awareness among pet owners, health-care professionals, and the pet food industry on the risk of illness in pets and their owners associated with dry pet foods and treats.

Food safety has been a global public health concern. Humans are seriously endangered by numerous contaminants in foodstuffs. Owning to the complexity of food matrices, sample pretreatment is an essential step both in qualitative and quantitative analysis of trace contaminants. Thus, the effective food pretreatment method is of great importance. Recently, development of nanomaterials has greatly promoted the innovation of food sample pretreatment approach. For example, carbon-based materials, metal-organic frameworks, covalent-organic frameworks, polydopamine-derived materials, silica-based materials as well as molecularly imprinted polymers showed great prospects for food sample pretreatment. In this review, we comprehensively summarized the recent pretreatment methods based on the emerging nanomaterials for food safety screening (period 2016–2019), and outlined their advantages and limitations. In the end, we also discussed the future development prospects and challenges in this field. This review hopefully can stimulate interdisciplinary research at the intersection of the emerging nanomaterials and food sample pretreatment.

This study investigates the contamination of foods and surfaces with Clostridium difficile in a single nursing home. C. difficile PCR-ribotype 078 was found in one food sample and in none of the tested surfaces. These results indicate that food and surfaces are an unlikely source of C. difficile infection in this setting.

Background: South-west Nigeria favourably supports growth and production of different food crops and with an ingredient such as crayfish children's complementary foods can be derived all year round. Suitability and adequacy of different products from crayfish, yellow maize, millet, sorghum, soybean, groundnut, and carrot as complementary food items was investigated. Objective: Formulation of nutritionally adequate complementary foods from local ingredients. Method: Food items bought in a local market were processed and arranged into three different food sample packages and analyzed. Sample A- soybean: millet: guinea corn: yellow maize: groundnut (20:20:20:20:20); sample B- soybean: millet: guinea corn: yellow maize: groundnut: crayfish (15:20:20:20:10:15) and sample Csoybean: millet: guinea corn: yellow maize: groundnut: crayfish: carrot (20:15:15:15:20:15:10). Results: The chemical composition of the formulations were as follows: for samples A, B and C Protein 18.15%: 16.64% and 21.46%; Fat 4.03%, 3.61% and 8.08%; Fibre 1.17%, 1.24% and 1.53%; Ash 5.21%, 5.36% and 7.52%; Moisture 10.36%, 9.55% and 7.26%; Carbohydrate 61.06%, 63.18% and 54.14% respectively.

Food quality and safety are directly related to human nutrition and health. The need for accurate, quick, and objective determination of various quality affecting factors, such as external factors (appearance—size, shape, color, or gloss and texture) and internal factors (physical, chemical, and biological), is expected to rise with the increase in demand for healthy foods. Food quality can be assessed, evaluated, and controlled using destructive and nondestructive methods. Generally, the food sample is lost after evaluation by the destructive methods. Using nondestructive quality evaluation techniques, food samples can be analyzed without affecting the food system. These instrumental methods are categorized under the objective measuring techniques. In recent years, these nondestructive quality evaluation methods have become a powerful tool, particularly due to the recent developments in computer hardware systems. This article presents the fundamentals of nondestructive quality evaluation techniques and highlights the different methods of nondestructive quality evaluation techniques, namely X-rays, hyperspectral imaging, and near-infrared imaging.

The focus of this study was to assess the hygienic standards of 44 foodservice facilities located in three Italian International Airports (with an output ranging from 100 to 800 meals a day), by monitoring the microbiological quality and safety of foods ready for consumption ( n = 773), food contact surfaces ( n = 302), and food handlers ( n = 287). The hygienic standard of surfaces was sufficiently high. Only 7.9% of surfaces did not conform with advisory standards in terms of total coliforms, and 2.6% were found to be contaminated with Enterococcus spp. at ≥1.0 log 10 CFU/cm 2 . The hygienic standard of washed and disinfected hands of food workers was not adequately high: the total bacterial count and coagulase positive Staphylococci exceeded the satisfactory limit in 8.4% and 3.5% of cases, respectively. The microbial analysis of foods examined showed an absence of Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella spp. Food sample analyses highlighted a percentage of samples that did not conform to microbial reference standards: Staphylococcus aureus non-conforming percentages ranged from 2.3% for “fully cooked food” to 9.2% for “raw fruit and vegetables”; Escherichia coli , from 0.0% for “raw fruit and vegetables” to 6.1% for “cooked and uncooked foods”; total coliforms from 14.3% for “fully cooked food” to 79.8% for “cooked and uncooked food”. In conclusion, the results suggest that more effort is needed in the application of HACCP principles. In order to prevent travel-related foodborne infections, various changes in the timing of food preparation and holding temperatures are needed, together with further training of food handlers.

We report a high prevalence of MCR-1 and CTX-M-1-producing Escherichia coli in three Tunisian chicken farms. Chickens were imported from France or derived from French imported chicks. The same IncHI2-type plasmid reported to carry those genes in cattle in France and in a food sample in Portugal was found in Tunisian chickens of French origin. This suggests a significant impact of food animal trade on the spread of mcr-1-mediated colistin resistance in Europe.

The market demands for new sensors for food quality and safety stimulate the development of new sensing technologies that can provide an unobtrusive sensor form factor, battery-free operation, and minimal sensor cost. Intelligent labeling of food products to indicate and report their freshness and other conditions is one of important possible applications of such new sensors. We have applied passive (battery-free) radio frequency identification (RFID) sensors for highly sensitive and selective detection of food freshness and bacterial growth. In these sensors, the electric field generated in the RFID sensor antenna extends out from the plane of the RFID sensor and is affected by the ambient environment providing the opportunity for sensing. This environment may be in the form of a food sample within the electric field of the sensing region or a sensing film deposited onto the sensor antenna. Examples of applications include monitoring of freshness of milk, freshness of fish, and bacterial growth in a solution. Unlike other food freshness monitoring approaches that require a thin film battery for operation of an RFID sensor and fabrication of custom-made sensors, our developed passive RFID sensing approach combines advantages of both battery-free and cost-effective sensor design and offers response selectivity that is impossible to achieve with other individual sensors.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the hygienic quality of three traditional “cook-serve” catering establishments in Lombardy, Italy (with an output ranging from 800 to 1700 meals a day), by monitoring the microbiological quality and safety of foods ready for consumption (n = 727), tap water (n = 32), microfiltered drinking water (n = 28), food contact surfaces (n = 280), and food handlers (n = 76). The food contact surfaces showed unacceptable contamination in 17.1% of samples. The hygienic level of the washed hands of food workers was very high, since only 1.3% of samples showed unacceptable contamination. Food sample analyses highlighted a percentage of samples that did not conform to microbial reference standards: the presence of Listeria monocytogenes was found in 11.5% of “soft cheese” samples. Staphylococcus aureus non-conforming percentages ranged from 2.2% for “first and second courses” to 34.6% for “soft cheeses”; Escherichia coli, from 2.7% for “raw vegetables” to 7.7% for “soft cheeses”; total coliforms from 6.7% for “first and second courses” to 76.4% for “raw vegetables”. The results of the water analysis indicated a high frequency of contamination with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (21.4% for microfiltered drinking water and 21.9% for tap water samples). In conclusion, the results suggest that more effort should be made in the application of HACCP principles. In addition in order to ensure a higher level of microbiological safety of meals, various changes in the timing of food preparation and holding temperatures are needed.

Assuring the safety and quality of food is vital in today’s world-wide integrated food supply chain. In this context, microfluidics is a technology that allows constructing small, fast and cheap microfluidic analytical systems. Microfluidic analytical systems are mainly used in biomedical applications. In this review, we survey some of the applications of microfluidic technology with respect to the development of high performance analytical devices for food analysis. We discuss the main challenges related to microfluidic applications and current trends towards building multi-purpose microfluidic platforms that integrate multiple unit operations for real food sample analysis.

The outbreak of food poisoning in 2011 which has been collected by BPOM RI recorded that there was 128 cases. As many as 18,144 people was exposed by contaminated food. There was 84 cases of food poisoning caused by Escherichia coli bacteria in 2013, while there was 47 cases in 2014. There were 60 incidences with 1106 cases of food poisoning in East Java during 2012. In Surabaya there was 93 cases of food poisoning during 2015. The purpose of this study was to describe food safety in RSUD Dr. Soetomo Surabaya. The research type was descriptive observational using secondary data from environmental sanitation installation inspection such as the result of food sample, dinnerware, and cookware examination. Data was compared to the regulation which was used by RSUD Dr. Soetomo Surabaya. The food samples, dinnerware, and cookware examination were done by BBTKLPP Surabaya four times a year. The results of the examination of the dinnerware sample in IRNA Palem 2 was 0,39 kol/cm3 and IRNA Cendana was 15 kol/cm3, there were not fulfilled the requirements. The conclusion of this research was the number of germs in the examination of the dinnerware was not in fulfilled the requirements in the regulation of the Health Minister No. 1096 of 2011 about Sanitation Hygiene of Catering Service. It is recommended that the nutrition installation to train to kitchenware washer and the IRNA kitchen managers about how to wash correctly and to pay attention to the washing way in order to minimize the contamination of Escherichia coli bacteria.

Celery was found to provoke human allergenic response in some countries. Labeling of celery ingredients was required by the European Union, and the threshold set at 10 mg/kg (0.001%). In our study, a celery mannitol transporter (Mat3) gene-based detection method was established by means of SYBR Green real-time PCR technique. No cross-reactivity was found between celery and the other food materials. Absolute detection limit (LODa), relative detection limit (LODr), and practical detection limit (LODp) of the method were determined through experiments on pure celery DNA, DNA mix, and spiked food samples. The method was able to detect 0.001 raw food sample and 0.01 heated food sample. The utility of the method was confirmed by the investigation of 13 commercial foods.

Food is one of components that can cause illness, so it must be safe. An outbreaks of food poisoning 19% happened in s chool and 78 . 57% happened to elementary school children. Hygiene and sanitation are important factor s related to food safety . This study was aimed to analyze correlation between behavior of hygiene and sanitation of food vendors with food safety by using most probable number of coliform indicator. This was an observational study use d cross sectional design , involving 25 food vendors and 25 food sample which were selected randomly . Result showed that 40% of the snack s were contaminated by Coliform (>10 Juml./g). The highest contamination of Coliform was >1.100 Juml./g and was found on four food snack s sold in the canteen. Categories of hygiene knowledge score of vendors w are moderate (52%). The majority of vendors w are included in the moderate hygiene attitude score category (52%), and most of the vendors w are included in the moderate hygiene practice score category and moderate environment sanitation score category (56%, respectively). S tatistical analysis using Spearman’s rho test showed that there wa re a significant correlation between knowledge of hygiene, practice of hygiene, and environment sanitation of vendors with food safet y us ing indicator most probable number of coliform (p=0 . 022, p=0 . 005, p=0 . 000, respectively). Whereas no significant correlation found between attitude of h y giene with contamination of Coliform (p=0.088). It was Found as much as 40% of foods are contaminated by coliform and should be aware d , observations of food processing needs to be applied to prevent coliform contamination of school children’s snacks.

Antibiotics are a common practice in veterinary medicine, mainly for therapeutic purposes. Sectors of application include livestock farming, aquacultures, and bee-keeping, where bacterial infections are frequent and can be economically damaging. However, antibiotics are usually administered in sub-therapeutic doses as prophylactic and growth promoting agents. Due to their excessive use, antibiotic residues can be present in foods of animal origin, which include meat, fish, milk, eggs, and honey, posing health risks to consumers. For this reason, authorities have set maximum residue limits (MRLs) of certain antibiotics in food matrices, while analytical methods for their determination have been developed. This work focuses on antibiotic extraction and determination, part of which was presented at the “1st Conference in Chemistry for Graduate, Postgraduate Students and PhD Candidates at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki”. Taking a step further, this paper is a review of the most recent sample preparation protocols applied for the extraction of sulfonamide antibiotics from food samples and their determination with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), covering a five-year period.

As poverty continues in many parts of the developing world, there is an increased demand on resources as well as for clean water, food, and air with increasing populations. Therefore, there is an intensified effort to produce more from land, with very poor soils necessitating the need to use pesticides some of which are persistent in the environment. Malaria continues to kill many and thus pesticide use will continue, and yet it is clear that pesticides and other endocrine disruptors will find their way into the food chain. This mini review looks at the analytical technologies that are available for sample handling of environmental samples and discusses some of the challenges faced by nations that have no capacity to either purchase or maintain some of this equipment.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of the external environment on the company’s strategic behavior, taking into account the psychological distance and the role of market orientation of export activities. Presence and continuity of presence in the turbulent of international markets need to take smart approach, considering the differences in internal and external markets. To Increase export performance in complex environments and greatly varied with the degree of market orientation is possible. Effectiveness and continuity of presence in foreign markets requires a level of adopting the design of the marketing mix. The method of this research is based on practical objective and descriptive-survey. The study population of research consists of experts, Supervisors and managers of international commerce exporting companies that their companies are excellent and food sample in 2015 Tehran province. To analyze the data collected, the researcher has used SPSS software and Excel. The results show that export market orientation positively affects the marketing mix adoption strategy and both positively associated with export performance. Also export marketing modifies the relationship between the export marketing mix adoption strategy and export performance. Psychological distance and external environment positively affect marketing mix adoption.

During routine monitoring for GMOs in food in the Netherlands, papaya-containing food supplements were found positive for the genetically modified (GM) elements P-35S and T-nos. The goal of this study was to identify the unknown and EU unauthorised GM papaya event(s). A screening strategy was applied using additional GM screening elements including a newly developed PRSV coat protein PCR. The detected PRSV coat protein PCR product was sequenced and the nucleotide sequence showed identity to PRSV YK strains indigenous to China and Taiwan. The GM events 16-0-1 and 18-2-4 could be identified by amplifying and sequencing events-specific sequences. Further analyses showed that both papaya event 16-0-1 and event 18-2-4 were transformed with the same construct. For use in routine analysis, derived TaqMan qPCR methods for events 16-0-1 and 18-2-4 were developed. Event 16-0-1 was detected in all samples tested whereas event 18-2-4 was detected in one sample. This study presents a strategy for combining information from different sources (literature, patent databases) and novel sequence data to identify unknown GM papaya events.

In this chapter, apple analysis using an electronic nose (E-nose) is discussed. Apple is a kind of popular fruit in our daily life. However, a nondestructive and fast analysis method is badly needed for food quality assessment. E-nose, imitating olfactory function of human being, has developed rapidly in the past few decades. It is a kind of novel instrument for food sample discrimination based on gas sensor array responses to complex volatile chemical compounds emitted by samples. Sensor array in an E-nose system consists of some sensors. Gases emitted by detecting samples generate a characteristic signal pattern from the sensor array. Patterns from the known samples are employed to construct a database and train a pattern recognition system. Later, the unknown pattern of new sample measurements can be classified and identified by the pattern recognition system. E-nose technology has been successfully employed in diverse fields such as agriculture, pharmaceutical, and environmental control.

The purpose of this study was to provide information on anthropometry, body composition and energy intake of adolescents South Eastern Nigeria. The participants were 190 apparently healthy adolescent boys and girls aged 15-18 years with equal sex distribution. Participants were subjected to anthropometric measurements viz: height, weight, arm circumference and skinfold thickness. Energy intake was determined from individual weighed inventory for three consecutive days including a week-end day; part of the food sample was subjected to chemical analysis. According to the results, all measurements except BMI and arm circumference had significant differences (p

Soil and dust ingestion rates by children are among the most critical exposure factors in determining risks to children from exposures to environmental contaminants in soil and dust. We believe this is the first published soil ingestion study for children in Taiwan using tracer element methodology. In this study, 66 children under 3 years of age were enrolled from Taiwan. Three days of fecal samples and a 24-h duplicate food sample were collected. The soil and household dust samples were also collected from children's homes. Soil ingestion rates were estimated based on silicon (Si) and titanium (Ti). The average soil ingestion rates were 9.6±19.2 mg/day based on Si as a tracer. The estimated soil ingestion rates based on Si did not have statistically significant differences by children's age and gender, although the average soil ingestion rates clearly increased as a function of children's age category. The estimated soil ingestion rates based on Si was significantly and positively correlated with the sum of indoor and outdoor hand-to-mouth frequency rates. The average soil ingestion rates based on Si were generally lower than the results from previous studies for the US children. Ti may not be a suitable tracer for estimating soil ingestion rates in Taiwan because the Ti dioxide is a common additive in food. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that investigated the correlations between soil ingestion rates and mouthing behaviors in Taiwan or other parts of Asia. It is also the first study that could compare available soil ingestion data from different countries and/or different cultures. The hand-to-mouth frequency and health habits are important to estimate the soil ingestion exposure for children. The results in this study are particularly important when assessing children's exposure and potential health risk from nearby contaminated soils in Taiwan.

A new DNA hybridization assay in microwell format for detection of Listeria spp. in foods and environmental samples was developed. This assay uses Listeria-specific oligonucleotide probes labeled with horseradish peroxidase and a photometrically determined end point. Validation studies with 15 different food commodities and a variety of environmental sample types were conducted to compare the performance of this alternative test versus reference methods. Meats, seafood, dairy products, and vegetables comprised the categories of food tested. Food samples were inoculated at 2 levels and refrigerated or frozen for at least 72 h. Uninoculated (negative) control samples were included in each trial. Samples were enriched according to the procedure recommended by either the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). Samples enriched for 24 h were transferred to Oxford agar plates and incubated for 24 h. The surface of the plateswas then swabbed and any growth present was transferred to phosphate buffer solution for the performance of the DNA assay. A standard confirmation procedure was used to compare the number of positive samples obtained with the DNA method versus reference methods. Statistical analyses of the results indicate that the proposed alternative method performs equally to cultural referencemethods. TheDNAassay is able to detect as lowas 1 colony-forming unit of Listeria in a 25 g food sample, with results available as early as 48 h after the start of sample enrichment.

The Minnesota Children's Pesticide Exposure Study (MNCPES) of the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS) was conducted in Minnesota to evaluate children's pesticide exposure. This study complements and extends the populations and chemicals included in the NHEXAS Region V study. One of the goals of the study was to test protocols for acquiring exposure measurements and developing databases for use in exposure models and assessments. Analysis of the data quality is one element in assessing the performance of the collection and analysis protocols used in this study. Data quality information must also be available to investigators to guide analysis of the study data. During the planning phase of MNCPES, quality assurance (QA) goals were established for precision, accuracy, and quantification limits. The data quality was assessed against these goals. The assessment is complex. First, data are not available for all analytes and media sampled. In addition, several laboratories were responsible for the analysis of the collected samples. Each laboratory provided data according to their standard operating procedures (SOPs) and protocols. Detection limits were authenticated for each analyte in each sample type. The approach used to calculate detection limits varied across the different analytical methods. The analytical methods for pesticides in air, food, hand rinses, dust wipe and urine were sufficiently sensitive and met the QA goals, with very few exceptions. This was also true for polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in air and food. The analytical methods for drinking water and beverages had very low detection limits; however, there were very little measurable data for these samples. The collection and analysis methods for pesticides in surface press samples and soil, and for PAHs in dust wipes were not sufficiently sensitive. Accuracy was assessed primarily as recovery from field controls. The results were good for pesticides and PAHs in air (75-125% recovery). Recovery was lower (75%) for pesticides in drinking water and beverages. The recovery of pesticides from hand rinses met QA goals (75-100%), but surface press samples showed lower recovery (50-70%). Analysis by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) did not confirm the presence of atrazine and other pesticides in hand rinse and surface press samples that had been detected by GC-ECD, but instead GC-MS confirmed background interferences. Assessment of the precision of sample collection and analysis is based on the percent relative standard deviation (%RSD) between the results for duplicate samples. Data are available only for pesticides and PAHs in air. Precision was good (20% RSD) for analytes with measurable data. There were a few analytes with %RSD20%, but the number of data pairs was very small in these cases. Precision for instrumental analysis of food sample extracts was excellent, with the median %RSD20 for all measurable pesticides. The median %RSD for the analysis of replicate aliquots of food from the same sample composite was considerably higher, indicating the potential for inhomogeneity of food homogenates.

Two dipstick-type sandwich-ELISAs were developed allowing the detection of trace amounts of peanut and hazelnut in processed foods. The detection limit of both assays was about 10 ng/ml of hazelnut or peanut protein, equivalent to 1 ppm protein in a food sample. The dipstick format allows a fast and cost-effective screening of foods because no specific instrumentation, such as microplate reader and washer, is necessary. The tests can be performed within 3 and 4 hours respectively. Various commercial food samples were tested and the results were compared with previously described and validated quantitative ELISAs for peanut and hazelnut. Results of the dipstick assays and the corresponding microplate ELISAs were in complete concordance. Our results indicated that the dipstick format could be a useful tool for fast and convenient monitoring of food production with regard to the labelling of allergens in food products. This would contribute to improve the protection of consumers from severe allergic reactions.