Search

Acrylamide is known to be a neurotoxic, genotoxic, and carcinogenic compound in animal, which is classified as a probable human carcinogen. In this study, a total of 223 samples of traditional Chinese foods were analyzed for acrylamide content, including cereal breakfast, cookie, bread, noodle, crispy rice, snow-cake, fried dough twist, fried bread stick, roasted cake, dried fruit flake, potato chips, sweet potato, dried fish or shrimp, soybean powder, chestnut, peanut, almond, crisp candy, dried vegetable, green tea, wafer, and cigarette. Results of the study showed that the average and median contents of acrylamide in all the selected foods were 113 and 76 μg kg−1, respectively. The results indicated that processing methods had significant influence on acrylamide formation. The highest acrylamide content was found by puffering processing. The data obtained here could be helpful for the estimation of exposure and risk assessment of acrylamide in Chinese population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Patulin is a secondary metabolite, which is mainly produced by certain species of Aspergillus and Penicillium fungi. In this study, a total of 95 samples of apple products were analyzed for patulin content, including apple juice, baby food, apple juice concentrate, and mixed juice. Results of the study showed in 16% of apple products level of patulin found was higher than 50μg/kg. Only 12 samples, 12.6% in 95 samples were below detectable limit for patulin analysis. The average and median content of patulin in all the samples was 20.4 and 10.3μg/kg, respectively. The results of this study indicate that it is possible to reduce patulin levels in apple juice concentrate, the total reduction rate was 46.2% after processing. And the most significant stage for the reduction of patulin content was washing. After washing, the mean loss of patulin was 33.6%. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Dongbei Suancai (DBSC) - a Chinese cabbage-based sauerkraut is a traditional fermented food which is popular in Asian countries. The biogenic amines that are usually generated during spontaneous fermentation have raised public health concern, while inoculation technology may solve this problem. In the current research, the biogenic amines, as well as their interactions with the microbial community in DBSC inoculated with Lactobacillus plantarum SC-5 or spontaneously fermented without inoculation were systematically investigated throughout 60 d fermentation. High-performance liquid chromatography analysis showed that the predominant biogenic amines in DBSC including putrescine, tyramine, spermidine, cadaverine and histamine increased during fermentation. Inoculated DBSC had a significantly lower content of total biogenic amines than the spontaneously fermented DBSC (216.72-237.33 mg/kg vs. 234.62-266.81 mg/kg) during 60 days' fermentation (P < 0.05). High throughput sequencing based on 16S rDNA identified 70 species in the bacterial community belonging to 7 genera of lactic acid bacteria, of which Lactobacillus, Leuconostoc and Lactococcus were dominant. Furthermore, six common genera of bacteria were positively correlated with biogenic amines based on Spearman's rank correlation test. Notably, the abundance of Lactobacillus plantarum SC-5 was negatively correlated with the content of biogenic amines in DBSC. In conclusion, inoculation of the proper starter like Lactobacillus plantarum SC-5 can reduce total biogenic amines in DBSC possibly by modifying the microbial communities in the fermented sauerkraut, which provides practical guidance for industrial production of high quality DBSC., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)