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Precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) was introduced by the food industry to help manage and communicate the possibility of reaction from the unintended presence of allergens in foods. However, in its current form, PAL is counterproductive for consumers with food allergies. This review aims to summarize the perspectives of all the key stakeholders (including clinicians, patients, food industry and regulators), with the aim of defining common health protection and risk minimization goals. The lack of agreed reference doses has resulted in inconsistent application of PAL by the food industry and in levels of contamination that prompt withdrawal action by enforcement officers. So there is a poor relationship between the presence or absence of PAL and actual reaction risk. This has led to a loss of trust in PAL, reducing the ability of consumers with food allergies to make informed choices. The result has been reduced avoidance, reduced quality of life and increased risk-taking by consumers who often ignore PAL. All contributing stakeholders agree that PAL must reflect actual risk. PAL should be transparent and consistent with rules underpinning decision-making process being communicated clearly to all stakeholders. The use of PAL should indicate the possible, unintended presence of an allergen in a consumed portion of a food product at or above any proposed action level. This will require combined work by all stakeholders to ensure everyone understands the approach and its limitations. Consumers with food allergy then need to be educated to undertake individualized risk assessments in relation to any PAL present. © 2015 John Wiley and Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

SEA-EU-NET project is based on the program Capacities under the 7th Framework Program (FP7) of the EU Commission with the strategic objective of Integrating and Strengthening the EU-ASEAN Science and Technology Dialogue through coordination and supporting activities. It is a 4 years program started in January 2008, and is currently supported by 22 institutions from Europe and South-East Asia. The objective is to increase the quality, quantity, profile and impact of bi-regional Science and Technology cooperation between the 10 ASEAN countries and the Members and Associated States of the European Union. Every Thematic Priority of FP7 has to implement dedicated international cooperation activities to achieve the program's goals and to address specific problems of ‘Third Countries/Regions’ (non-EU Members States or non-Associated States). This activity is performed through the organization of annual Thematic Workshops, with the objective to produce a document containing duly justified proposals for Specific International Cooperation Actions. This paper presents the results of the Thematic Workshop on ‘Food Quality, Safety and Traceability’. This expert meeting was done in Thailand in February 2009. Titles for 10 possible themes were identified on the following fields: Bacteria antibioresistance, Mycotoxins, Pathogens (bacteria), Pesticides, Heavy metals, Food traceability, Food Supply Chain, Preserving nutrients, Consumers attitudes, Peri-urban markets.

This paper is a report on the European Food Science Day (Brussels, 18 November 2009, organized by the CommNet network of food science communicators) and its outcomes. The article presents FP 7 as a key funding mechanism in European food and nutrition research and it puts research in this sector in a socio-economic context. The article then reviews the specific activities of several EU-funded projects in the field of risk, safety, and health, discussing key issues and research questions in these fields.

MoniQA (Monitoring and Quality Assurance in the total food supply chain) is an EU-funded Network of Excellence that involves experts from around the globe collaborating to harmonize worldwide food quality and safety monitoring and control strategies. The initial network of over 155 scientists from 20 countries has grown to over 400 experts from over 35 countries from five continents in the first 18 months. MoniQA focuses on validation of and performance criteria/requirements for methods used to analyse foods and food products for safety and quality, with the main focus being on rapid methods and their applicability and reliability in routine testing. The work involves validation guidelines, validation studies, design and development of reference materials/testing materials and validation guidelines. MoniQA will play an important role in integrating European and worldwide food quality and safety research by creating a virtual laboratory for joint research, training, dissemination and mobility programmes. It will allow and actively promote sharing of data and knowledge, as well as of equipment, materials and personnel through creation of a global platform for food Q&S researchers. MoniQA will enable shared access to the world's best research facilities, technological platforms, databases, analytical tools and knowledge. MoniQA's harmonized food quality and safety control strategies will add value in the food chain and will improve consumer confidence worldwide. MoniQA's socio-economic impact assessment will enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of new food quality and safety regulations within the EU and worldwide.

Due to high daily intake, cereal-based food represents the most important source of certain antioxidant compounds (phenolic compounds, phytic acid) that have been proven to lower the risk of developing a wide range of diseases such as age related processes, cardiovascular diseases and certain types of cancer. There are lots of possible in vitro approaches for estimation of antioxidant potential of a foodstuff - the measurement of radical scavenging activity (superoxide anion-, hydroxyl- and free radical scavenging activity on DPPH˙ or ABTS˙+) ; antioxidant activity in linoleic acid emulsion system ; ferric reducing power ; chelating capacity etc. The most important limitation of such procedures is incomplete extraction of antioxidant substances from the foodstuff – usually mixtures of certain organic solvents with water are used. However, it is doubtful if obtained results accurately reflect antioxidant activity of investigated foodstuff in physiological conditions even when optimal extraction solvent is found. Therefore, in this investigation two types of extraction procedures were applied for estimation of antioxidant potential of six different types of integral hard biscuits. Chemical extraction was conducted using acidified water/methanol extraction solvent that was chosen based on our preliminary investigations, and physiological approach included in vitro simulation of gastrointestinal digestion using different digestion enzymes. Antioxidant activity of biscuits was assessed using two spectrophotometric methods – estimation of ferric reducing power (FRAP) and measurement of 2, 2’ -azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS˙+) radical cation scavenging activity. Biscuits were experimentally prepared in laboratory conditions by supplementing standard wheat based recepture with carob, amaranth, soy flour, apple- or oat dietary fiber, respectively. The goal of our investigation was to compare chemical and physiological approaches for estimation of antioxidant activity as well as to assess the impact of biscuits’ composition and baking procedure on the content of substances excreting antioxidant activity in the final product. ABTS˙+ radical scavenging activity of the samples was expressed as μ gTrolox/100 mg of sample and ferric reducing power was expressed as mg of sample excreting the same activity as 1 mmol Fe (II). Our results revealed that baking significantly increased both types of antioxidant activity in both, chemical and physiological extracts probably because baking also increased the amounts of extractable phenolic compounds known as bearers of antioxidant potential in cereal based foods. Antioxidant activity of biscuits’ chemical extracts ranged from 134 μ gTrolox/100 mg i.e.1268 mg/mmol Fe(II) (sample with oat fibers) to 503 μ gTrolox/100 mg i.e.381 mg/mmol Fe(II) (sample with carob). Physiological and chemical approach revealed very similar results regarding the ferric reducing power while at the same time ABTS˙+ radical scavenging activity of physiological extract was significantly higher compared to chemical extract ranging from 160 (sample with oat fiber) to 590 μ gTrolox/100 mg (sample with carob). Although our results indicate that chemical approach actually underestimates the radical scavenging activity of investigated samples, it is obvious that results obtained in chemical extracts correlate well with physiological antioxidant activity and reflect rather well the differences in antioxidant activity among biscuits with different raw-materials composition.

Since cereal-based confectionary products become even more recognized as functional foodstuff with improved nutritive characteristics, there is a general pursuit of increasing their content of different health protecting substances such as polyphenols, dietary fibers, vitamins and minerals. Therefore, in the frameworks of this research six different types of nutritionally improved biscuits, experimentally prepared in a laboratory conditions, were evaluated as sources of health protective polyphenolic substances. The goal of the investigation was to assess the significance of implementing different types of integral raw materials or dietary fibers to wheat flour based recepture on polyphenolic content in the final product. Raw materials used for enrichment of standard recepture were soy flour, carob, amaranth, apple dietary fiber or oat dietary fiber. In order to investigate the impact of baking procedure on the levels of phenolic compounds, respective dough samples were analyzed as well. Phenolic content was determined in defatted samples using Folin-Ciocalteu spectrophotometric method. Results obtained after chemical extraction with acidified methanol/water mixture indicated that significant increase of polyphenolic content can be achieved by implementing some of the used whole grain raw materials or dietary fibers to standard recepture. Phenolic content (expressed as ferulic acid equivalents) ranged from 58 mg/100g (sample with oat fiber) to 387 mg/100g (sample enriched with carob). Obtained results dealing with the impact of baking procedure on phenolic content where somewhat confusing since in some samples it has been observed that baking procedure significantly increases the content of phenolic compounds. The highest increase was observed in samples containing apple fiber, soy flour or carob (127 %, 119 % and 118 % respectively). Due to the lack of literature data it was impossible to compare our results to the findings of other authors. However, knowing that usual chemical extractions only liberate a part of total phenolics present in a food sample, we have concluded that baking procedure probably liberated some of hydrolizable phenolics of the sample so that they became extractable in used extraction solvent. We have proven our theory by determining hydrolizable phenolic fraction in all dough- and biscuits samples and calculating the total amount of phenolic compounds (extractable + hydrolizable).Taking into account total phenolic content, our final results revealed that baking doesn't significantly influence total phenolic content in biscuits regardless of their composition (averagely 5.7 %, p>0.05). Increased polyphenolic content is certainly a desirable characteristic of a nutritionally improved foodstuff, due to their antioxidative and other health protective characteristics. However, in order to excrete their beneficial activity, polyphenols must be accessible for intestinal absorption from the foodstuff. Therefore, bioaccessible phenolic fraction was also estimated in investigated doughs and biscuits, by analyzing the samples after in vitro simulation of gastrointestinal digestion using digestive enzymes. Obtained results revealed significant differences among investigated samples, increase of bioaccessibility during baking procedure (8.9 – 59.7 %) and proved that usual chemical approaches for estimation of polyphenols might underestimate the actual amount of bioaccessible phenolic compounds in these types of samples.

The quality of wheat, as one of the major cereals, is very important in cereal-based products industry. Today people prefer cereal products of whole grain flour since it is well known that whole grain is a good source of antioxidans, dietary fiber, vitamins and particularly of macro- and trace elements. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to determine macro- and trace elements content in different wheat genotypes after additional nitrogen feeding, as well as their relationship with crude proteins in wheat corn. The investigation was carried out on five replicates of three wheat grain genotypes grown under the same topographical and different agrotechnical conditions (standard and additional nitrogen feeding) in the course of two consecutive vegetation years. Sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper, zinc, manganese, nickel, cadmium and chromium concentrations after microwave digestion were determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), after microwave digestion of investigated samples. The protein content (N x 5.7) of the samples were assessed according to Kjeldahl method. Statistical analysis variance revealed that there were significant increase in the amount (mean values of five repetitions) of Ca, Mg ; Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn and Ni after additional feeding in all investigated genotypes in both year of growing. It is evident that, depending on cultivar and year of growing, the Ca content increased by 13.56 – 19.20 %, Mg by 4.61 – 6.58 %, Fe by 6.92 – 25.89 %, Cu by 3.12 – 17.11 %, Zn by 6.71 – 12.84 %, Mn by 11.82 – 26.31 and Ni by 16.00 – 22.22 %. The contents of Na and K decreased but only K has decreased significantly. Since the concentration levels of Cd and Cr were very low, there is no certain evidence that the additional nitrogen input had impact on the concentration levels of these two elements.The protein content increased for 22.29 – 40.04 %. Analyses of the results revealed a positive correlation between proteins and some of the researched macro- and trace elements. Genotype predisposition for higher biosynthesis of proteins and acumulation of some macro- and trace elements, which is dependant on climate factors, was also been established.

Allergen detection and quantification is an essential part of allergen management as practiced by food manufacturers. Recently, protein MS methods (in particular, multiple reaction monitoring experiments) have begun to be adopted by the allergen detection community to provide an alternative technique to ELISA and PCR methods. MS analysis of proteins in foods provides additional challenges to the analyst, both in terms of experimental design and methodology: (1) choice of analyte, including multiplexing to simultaneously detect several biologically relevant molecules able to trigger allergic reactions; (2) choice of processing stable peptide markers for different target analytes that should be placed in publicly available databases; (3) markers allowing quantification (e.g., through standard addition or isotopically labeled peptide standards); (4) optimization of protease digestion protocols to ensure reproducible and robust method development; and (5) effective validation of methods and harmonization of results through the use of naturally incurred reference materials spanning several types of food matrix.