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The ruminant-microorganism symbiosis is unique by providing high-quality food from fibrous materials but also contributes to the production of one of the most potent greenhouse gases-methane. Mitigating methanogenesis in ruminants has been a focus of interest in the past decades. One of the promising strategies to combat methane production is the use of feed supplements, such as seaweeds, that might mitigate methanogenesis via microbiome modulation and direct chemical inhibition. We conducted in vitro investigations of the effect of three seaweeds ( Ascophyllum nodosum , Asparagopsis taxiformis , and Fucus vesiculosus ) harvested at different locations (Iceland, Scotland, and Portugal) on methane production. We applied metataxonomics (16S rRNA gene amplicons) and metagenomics (shotgun) methods to uncover the interplay between the microbiome's taxonomical and functional states, methanogenesis rates, and seaweed supplementations. Methane concentration was reduced by A. nodosum and F. vesiculosus , both harvested in Scotland and A. taxiformis , with the greatest effect of the latter. A. taxiformis acted through the reduction of archaea-to-bacteria ratios but not eukaryotes-to-bacteria. Moreover, A. taxiformis application was accompanied by shifts in both taxonomic and functional profiles of the microbial communities, decreasing not only archaeal ratios but also abundances of methanogenesis-associated functions. Methanobrevibacter "SGMT" ( M. smithii, M. gottschalkii, M. millerae or M. thaueri ; high methane yield) to "RO" ( M. ruminantium and M. olleyae ; low methane yield) clades ratios were also decreased, indicating that A. taxiformis application favored Methanobrevibacter species that produce less methane. Most of the functions directly involved in methanogenesis were less abundant, while the abundances of the small subset of functions that participate in methane assimilation were increased., Importance: The application of A. taxiformis significantly reduced methane production in vitro . We showed that this reduction was linked to changes in microbial function profiles, the decline in the overall archaeal community counts, and shifts in ratios of Methanobrevibacter "SGMT" and "RO" clades. A. nodosum and F. vesiculosus , obtained from Scotland, also decreased methane concentration in the total gas, while the same seaweed species from Iceland did not., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Sixteen multiparous Holstein cows in four blocks of 4 × 4 Latin square over 4-week experimental periods were used to study the effects of seaweed (Saccharina latissima) supplement (with/without) and protein source (rapeseed meal (RSM)/wheat distiller's grain (WDG)) on milk mineral concentrations. Dietary treatments did not affect milk production and basic composition. Feeding seaweed slightly decreased milk Ca and Cu concentrations; whilst increased (by 3.3-fold) milk iodine (I) concentration, due to a higher dietary I supply. Substitution of WDG with RSM increased feed-to-milk transfer of Ca, Na, and Se and decreased that of Mg, P, Fe, and Mn; but only reduced milk Mn and I concentrations (the latter by 27 % as a potential result of increased glucosinolate intake). Seaweed supplement can improve milk I content when cows' I supply/availability is limited, but care should be taken to avoid excess milk I contents that may pose nutritional risks for young children., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Thirty conventional and twenty-four organic dairy farms were divided into equal numbers within system groups: high-pasture, standard-pasture, and low-pasture groups. Milk samples were collected monthly for 12 consecutive months. Milk from high-pasture organic farms contained less fat and protein than standard- and low-pasture organic farms, but more lactose than low-pasture organic farms. Grazing, concentrate feed intake and the contribution of non-Holstein breeds were the key drivers for these changes. Milk Ca and P concentrations were lower in standard-pasture conventional farms than the other conventional groups. Milk from low-pasture organic farms contained less Ca than high- and standard-pasture organic farms, while high-pasture organic farms produced milk with the highest Sn concentration. Differences in mineral concentrations were driven by the contribution of non-Holstein breeds, feeding practices, and grazing activity; but due to their relatively low numerical differences between groups, the subsequent impact on consumers' dietary mineral intakes would be minor.

To study the effects of dairy production system on milk macromineral and trace element concentrations, milk samples were collected monthly in 2019 from 43 conventional and 27 organic farms. Organic milk contained more Ca (1049.5 vs. 995.8 mg/kg), K (1383.6 vs. 1362.4 mg/kg), P (806.5 vs. 792.5 mg/kg) and Mo (73.3 vs. 60.6 μg/kg) but less Cu (52.4 vs. 60.6 μg/kg), Fe (0.66 vs 2.03 mg/kg), Mn (28.8 vs. 45.0 μg/kg), Zn (4.51 vs. 5.00 mg/kg) and Al (0.32 vs. 1.14 μg/kg) than conventional milk. Significant seasonal variation was observed in all determined minerals' concentrations. Milk I concentration was not consistently affected by production system, whereas organic milk contained less I in June and July than conventional milk. Dietary factors contributing to different milk mineral concentrations between production systems included intakes of maize silage, dry-straights and oils (higher in conventional diets), and pasture, clover and wholecrop (higher in organic diets)., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Brown macroalgae Saccharina latissima (30-40 individuals) and Alaria esculenta (15-20 individuals) were collected from natural populations in winter in Iceland. The algal thalli were sectioned into different parts (e.g. holdfast, stipe, old frond, young frond and sori-containing frond sections) that differed in age and biological function. The work elucidated that arsenic (As) was not uniformly distributed within the two brown macroalgal species, with lower levels of total As were found in the stipe/midrib compared to other thallus parts. The arsenosugars mirrored the total arsenic in the seaweed mainly due to AsSugSO 3 being the most abundant As species. However, arsenic speciation using parallel HPLC-ICP-MS/ESI-MS elucidated that the arsenic-containing lipids (AsL) had a different distribution where the arsenosugarphospholipids (AsPL) differed by approximately a factor of 4 between the sections containing the lowest and highest concentrations of AsPLs. When placing the sections in order of metabolic activity and an estimate of tissue age, there appeared to be a relationship between the activity and AsPLs, with lower levels of AsPLs in oldest parts. This is the first time such a relationship has been shown for AsLs. Hence, by applying sophisticated analytical techniques, it was possible to gain a deeper understanding of arsenolipids in seaweed.

More than 1000 time-series of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in Arctic biota from marine and freshwater ecosystems some extending back to the beginning of 1980s were analyzed using a robust statistical method. The Arctic area encompassed extended from Alaska, USA in the west to northern Scandinavian in the east, with data gaps for Arctic Russia and Arctic Finland. The aim was to investigate whether temporal trends for different animal groups and matrices were consistent across a larger geographical area. In general, legacy POPs showed decreasing concentrations over the last two to three decades, which were most pronounced for α-HCH and least pronounced for HCB and β-HCH. Few time-series of legacy POPs showed increasing trends and only at sites suspected to be influenced by local source. The brominated flame retardant congener BDE-47 showed a typical trend of increasing concentration up to approximately the mid-2000s followed by a decreasing concentration. A similar trend was found for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS). These trends are likely related to the relatively recent introduction of national and international controls of hexa- and hepta-BDE congeners and the voluntary phase-out of PFOS production in the USA in 2000. Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCDD) was the only compound in this study showing a consistent increasing trend. Only 12% of the long-term time-series were able to detect a 5% annual change with a statistical power of 80% at α < 0.05. The remaining 88% of time-series need additional years of data collection before fulfilling these statistical requirements. In the case of the organochlorine long-term time-series, 45% of these would require >20 years monitoring before this requirement would be fulfilled., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A Quality Management Framework to improve quality and harmonization of Total Diet Study practices in Europe was developed within the TDS-Exposure Project. Seventeen processes were identified and hazards, Critical Control Points and associated preventive and corrective measures described. The Total Diet Study process was summarized in a flowchart divided into planning and practical (sample collection, preparation and analysis; risk assessment analysis and publication) phases. Standard Operating Procedures were developed and implemented in pilot studies in five organizations. The flowchart was used to develop a quality framework for Total Diet Studies that could be included in formal quality management systems. Pilot studies operated by four project partners were visited by project assessors who reviewed implementation of the proposed framework and identified areas that could be improved. The quality framework developed can be the starting point for any Total Diet Study centre and can be used within existing formal quality management approaches., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A total diet study (TDS) is a public health tool for determination of population dietary exposure to chemicals across the entire diet. TDSs have been performed in several countries but the comparability of data produced is limited. Harmonisation of the TDS methodology is therefore desirable and the development of comparable TDS food lists is considered essential to achieve the consistency between countries. The aim of this study is to develop and test the feasibility of a method for establishing harmonised TDS food and sample lists in five European countries with different consumption patterns (Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Iceland and Portugal). The food lists were intended to be applicable for exposure assessment of wide range of chemical substances in adults (18-64 years) and the elderly (65-74 years). Food consumption data from recent dietary surveys measured on individuals served as the basis for this work. Since the national data from these five countries were not comparable, all foods were linked to the EFSA FoodEx2 classification and description system. The selection of foods for TDS was based on the weight of food consumed and was carried out separately for each FoodEx2 level 1 food group. Individual food approach was respected as much as possible when the TDS samples were defined. TDS food lists developed with this approach represented 94.7-98.7% of the national total diet weights. The overall number of TDS samples varied from 128 in Finland to 246 in Germany. The suggested method was successfully implemented in all five countries. Mapping of data to the EFSA FoodEx2 coding system was recognised as a crucial step in harmonisation of the developed TDS food lists.

As the ice cap of the Arctic diminishes due to global warming, the polar sailing route will be open larger parts of the year. These changes are likely to increase the pollution load on the pristine Arctic due to large vessel traffic from specific contaminant groups, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). A well-documented baseline for PAH concentrations in the biota in the remote regions of the Nordic Seas and the sub-Arctic is currently limited, but will be vital in order to assess future changes in PAH contamination in the region. Blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) were collected from remote sites in Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Norway and Sweden as well as from urban sites in the same countries for comparison. Cod (Gadus morhua) was caught north of Iceland and along the Norwegian coast. Sixteen priority PAH congeners and the inorganic trace elements arsenic, cadmium, mercury and lead were analysed in the blue mussel samples as well as PAH metabolites in cod bile. Σ16PAHs ranged from 28 ng/g dry weight (d.w.) (Álftafjörður, NW Iceland) to 480 ng/g d.w. (Ísafjörður, NW Iceland). Mussel samples from Mjóifjörður, East Iceland and Maarmorilik, West Greenland, contained elevated levels of Σ16PAHs, 370 and 280 ng/g d.w., respectively. Levels of inorganic trace elements varied with highest levels of arsenic in mussels from Ísafjörður, Iceland (79 ng/g d.w.), cadmium in mussels from Mjóifjörður, Iceland (4.3 ng/g d.w.), mercury in mussels from Sørenfjorden, Norway (0.23 ng/g d.w.) and lead in mussels from Maarmorilik, Greenland (21 ng/g d.w.). 1-OH-pyrene was only found above limits of quantification (0.5 ng/mL) in samples from the Norwegian coast, ranging between 44 and 140 ng/ml bile. Generally, PAH levels were low in mussels from the remote sites investigated in the study, which indicates limited current effect on the environment., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Nine different extraction methods were evaluated for three seafood samples to test whether the concentration of inorganic arsenic (iAs) determined in seafood is dependent on the extraction method. Certified reference materials (CRM) DOLT-4 (Dogfish Liver) and TORT-2 (Lobster Hepatopancreas), and a commercial herring fish meal were evaluated. All experimental work described here was carried out by the same operator using the same instrumentation, thus eliminating possible differences in results caused by laboratory related factors. Low concentrations of iAs were found in CRM DOLT-4 (0.012±0.003mgkg(-1)) and the herring fish meal sample (0.007±0.002mgkg(-1)) for all extraction methods. When comparing the concentration of iAs in CRM TORT-2 found in this study and in the literature dilute acids, HNO3 and HCl, showed the highest extracted iAs wheras dilute NaOH (in 50% ethanol) showed significantly lower extracted iAs. However, most other extraction solvents were not statistically different from one another., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Because of the toxicity of inorganic arsenic (iAs), only iAs needs to be monitored in food and feedstuff. This demands the development of easy and quick analytical methods to screen large number of samples. This work focuses on hydride generation (HG) coupled with an ICPMS as an arsenic detector where the HG is added as a selective step to determine iAs in the gaseous phase while organically bound As remains in the solution. iAs forms volatile arsine species with high efficiency when treated with NaBH4 at acidic conditions, whereas most other organoarsenic compounds do not form any or only less volatile arsines. Additionally, using high concentrations of HCl further reduces the production of the less volatile arsines and iAs is almost exclusively formed, therefore enabling to measure iAs without a prior step of species separation using chromatography. Here, we coupled a commercially available HG system to an ICPMS and optimized for determination of iAs in rice and samples of marine origin using different acid concentrations, wet and dry plasma conditions, and different reaction gas modes. Comparing this method to conventional HPLC-ICPMS, no statistical difference in iAs concentration was found and comparable limits of detections were achieved using less than half the instrument time.

The addition of an online post-column hydride generation (HG) step to the commonly used high-performance liquid chromatography inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ICP-MS) setup for arsenic speciation proved to significantly improve the detection limits for the determination of inorganic arsenic (iAs) as arsenate in seafood samples, where the limit of detection and limit of quantification were found to be 0.0004 and 0.0014 mg kg(-1), respectively with HG. HG as an additional step further added to the selectivity of the determination of the iAs species and increased the detection and quantification of low levels of iAs (<0.002 mg kg(-1)) in samples with complicated matrices.

All market participants (e.g., investors, producers, consumers) accept a certain level of risk as necessary to achieve certain benefits. There are many types of risk including price, production, financial, institutional, and individual human risks. All these risks should be effectively managed in order to derive the utmost of benefits and avoid disruption and/or catastrophic economic consequences for the food industry. The identification, analysis, determination, and understanding of the benefit-risk trade-offs of market participants in the food markets may help policy makers, financial analysts and marketers to make well-informed and effective corporate investment strategies in order to deal with highly uncertain and risky situations. In this paper, we discuss the role that benefits and risks play in the formation of the decision-making process of market-participants, who are engaged in the upstream and downstream stages of the food supply chain. In addition, we review the most common approaches (expected utility model and psychometrics) for measuring benefit-risk trade-offs in the economics and marketing-finance literature, and different factors that may affect the economic behaviour in the light of benefit-risk analyses. Building on the findings of our review, we introduce a conceptual framework to study the benefit-risk behaviour of market participants. Specifically, we suggest the decoupling of benefits and risks into the separate components of utilitarian benefits, hedonic benefits, and risk attitude and risk perception, respectively. Predicting and explaining how market participants in the food industry form their overall attitude in light of benefit-risk trade-offs may be critical for policy-makers and managers who need to understand the drivers of the economic behaviour of market participants with respect to production, marketing and consumption of food products., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Risk-taking is normal in everyday life if there are associated (perceived) benefits. Benefit-Risk Analysis (BRA) compares the risk of a situation to its related benefits and addresses the acceptability of the risk. Over the past years BRA in relation to food and food ingredients has gained attention. Food, and even the same food ingredient, may confer both beneficial and adverse effects. Measures directed at food safety may lead to suboptimal or insufficient levels of ingredients from a benefit perspective. In BRA, benefits and risks of food (ingredients) are assessed in one go and may conditionally be expressed into one currency. This allows the comparison of adverse and beneficial effects to be qualitative and quantitative. A BRA should help policy-makers to make more informed and balanced benefit-risk management decisions. Not allowing food benefits to occur in order to guarantee food safety is a risk management decision much the same as accepting some risk in order to achieve more benefits. BRA in food and nutrition is making progress, but difficulties remain. The field may benefit from looking across its borders to learn from other research areas. The BEPRARIBEAN project (Best Practices for Risk-Benefit Analysis: experience from out of food into food; http://en.opasnet.org/w/Bepraribean) aims to do so, by working together with Medicines, Food Microbiology, Environmental Health, Economics & Marketing-Finance and Consumer Perception. All perspectives are reviewed and subsequently integrated to identify opportunities for further development of BRA for food and food ingredients. Interesting issues that emerge are the varying degrees of risk that are deemed acceptable within the areas and the trend towards more open and participatory BRA processes. A set of 6 'state of the art' papers covering the above areas and a paper integrating the separate (re)views are published in this volume., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

A statistically robust method was applied to 83 time-series of mercury in Arctic biota from marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems with the purpose of generating a 'meta-analysis' of temporal trend data collected over the past two to three decades, mostly under the auspices of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP). Sampling locations ranged from Alaska in the west to northern Scandinavia in the east. Information from recently published temporal trend studies was tabulated to supplement the results of the statistical analyses. No generally consistent trend was evident across tissues and species from the circumpolar Arctic during the last 30years or so. However, there was a clear west-to-east gradient in the occurrence of recent increasing Hg trends, with larger numbers and a higher proportion of biotic datasets in the Canadian and Greenland region of the Arctic showing significant increases than in the North Atlantic Arctic. Most of the increasing datasets were for marine species, especially marine mammals. A total of 16 (19%) out of the 83 time-series could be classified as "adequate", where adequate is defined as the number of actual monitoring years in a time-series being equal to or greater than the number of years of sampling required to detect a 5% annual change in Hg concentrations, with a significance level of P<0.05 and 80% statistical power. At the time of the previous AMAP Assessment, only 10% of the Hg time-series were deemed adequate. If an additional 5years of data were to be added to the current set of time-series, it is predicted that 53% of time-series would become adequate., (Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)