Food Control最新文献

The tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) is one of the main native fish species in the Amazon region of Brazil, with economic, nutritional, cultural and environmental importance for the country. However, the presence of pathogens such as Salmonella in this matrix poses a threat to the safety and potential of this food chain. In response, this study aimed to develop a rapid, non-destructive approach to detecting Salmonella enterica serovar Schwarzengrund in tambaqui samples, using Fourier Transform Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-MIR) spectral data combined with the Data-Driven - Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy (DD-SIMCA) method. For this purpose, seventy-two samples of tambaqui ribs were purchased from supermarkets. Two groups of samples were used to build the model: control and contaminated with Salmonella. FT-MIR spectra were checked and four relevant regions were analyzed: all spectrum (4000–550 cm-¹), region 1 (1490–500 cm-¹), region 2 (1500–1730 cm-¹), and region 3 (2835–4000 cm-¹). The results revealed that region 1 proved to be the best for classifying contaminated samples from those not contaminated with Salmonella, with the best predictive performance with an accuracy of 94.2%. Our model exhibited the potential to be applied to the identification of Salmonella in tambaqui and to be a valuable tool for guaranteeing the safety and authenticity of fish products in the Brazilian Amazon region and, potentially, beyond. However, the use of FT-MIR combined with DD-SIMCA could be further explored in the future with a larger sample database, in order to verify the model's performance when the entire spectrum, regions 2 and 3 are used.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is an endocrine disruptor that may be present in plastics and coatings of food and beverage packages. In this regard, the World Health Organization recommends the maximum migration of BPA to foodstuffs as < 0.6 mg kg⁻¹. Analytical BPA determination procedures have been based on chromatographic techniques, which generate waste with organic solvents. Alternatively, proposed spectrophotometric procedures have often shown high detection limits for foodstuffs analysis, requiring pre-concentration prior to determination. The analysis of beverages is susceptible to interferences because of their complex formulation comprising dyes and sugars, for example, that hinder spectrophotometric determinations. Multi-signal calibrations are powerful tools used to minimize matrix effects, and recently, they have proven efficient when performed in flow analysis systems, denominated as multi-dispersion calibration (MDC). This work proposes a multi-pumping flow system for the spectrophotometric determination of BPA based on the reaction with sulfanilamide (used for the first time) after diazotization to yield a compound with an absorption maximum at 446 nm. After the optimization of the main parameters, a linear response was observed between 0.25 and 10 mg L⁻¹. The detection limit (by external calibration), coefficient of variation (n = 20), and determination rate were estimated at 0.11 mg L⁻¹, 4.0 %, and 33 h⁻¹, respectively. The MDC was exploited to analyze beverage samples to minimize interferences, especially due to dyes and sucrose. The detection limit estimated for this method was 0.057 mg L⁻¹. Recoveries from 84 to 114 % and the agreement of comparative analysis of the samples with the reference procedure (at the 95% confidence level) demonstrated the accuracy of the proposed procedure. Therefore, the developed alternative is reliable with proper sensitivity and minimum sample preparation for the spectrophotometric determination of BPA in beverages.

Despite many publications on barriers hindering the implementation of HACCP principles, there are no studies that have comprehensively identified barriers during the maintenance of standardised food safety management systems (FSMSs) based on HACCP principles. This research aimed to determine the structure of barriers during the maintenance of standardised FSMSs based on private standards in a group of small-sized Polish food businesses and (ii) determine the ranking of barriers based on the experience of food safety team leaders (FSTLs) and food safety team members (FSTMs).

Barriers identified during interviews with FSTLs were clustered into 17 categories with 144 groups. Apart from barrier categories well known from HACCP implementation stage, this study identified new categories, such as faults in FSMS, burdensome production issues as well as difficulties in cooperation with customers and suppliers of raw materials, external and internal auditors, external consultants and official food control inspectors.

Moreover, two rankings of barriers were obtained based on the Suzuki method and a Pareto analysis. The FSTLs' rankings identified five critical barriers concerning employee attributes, faults in FSMS operation, burdensome documented information, financial constraints and burdensome documented information. The five key barrier categories in the FSTMs’ rankings included top management attributes, burdensome documented information, employee attributes, burdensome production issues, and poor infrastructure.

The knowledge of the groups and the categories of barriers is essential for FSTLs during the maintenance and continual improvement of the HACCP-based FSMSs. It may be useful as a reference and contribute to the increasing food control inspectors and food business operators’ awareness of potential barriers occurring in FSMSs based on private standards such as ISO 22000, BRC and IFS. Moreover, an analysis of the barriers presented in this study would be helpful in the elimination of some hindrances. It would positively impact the effectiveness of the FSMS and the organisational food safety culture, contributing to broader improvements in public health through food safety management and official food controls.

Apples are widely favored by consumers, but the presence of pesticide residues can pose risks to their quality and safety. This study investigated the residual levels of pesticides in commercial apples from 11 cities in Shanxi Province, using analytical methods to detect 102 pesticides. A total of 34 pesticides were detected, with the highest detection rate observed for carbendazim (78.95%), tebuconazole (57.14%), and acetamiprid (53.38%). Pesticide concentrations ranged from below 2 μg/kg to 522.96 μg/kg, with all levels remaining within the maximum residue limits (MRLs) in China. The retention factors, which characterize the distribution pattern, exhibited a significantly positive correlation with the base-10 logarithms of the octanol-water partition coefficient (pKow). All detected pesticides showed acceptable acute dietary risks, with values below 21.33% for different consumer groups, as assessed by deterministic and probabilistic models. This study enhances the understanding of residual pesticide levels and dietary risks of pesticides in apples at the provincial scale and promotes the rational application of pesticides.

Rice is the main staple food for more than half of the world's population. Consumption of long-stored rice will have adverse effects on the human body. Here, we proposed the near-infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technique to distinguish rice from different storage years. Multiplicative Scatter Correction (MSC), Standard Normalize Variate (SNV) and 1st Derivative (1st) were used for the pretreatment of HSI data. In order to reduce dimensional spectral features, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (tSNE) were used for data visualization. Besides, spectral characteristic wavelengths were extracted by competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso). Simultaneously, the textural features of rice were analyzed by Local Binary Pattern (LBP), Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) and Tamura algorithms. In order to realize feature fusion of spectra and texture, Support Vector Machine (SVM) model was optimized using the Whale optimization algorithm (WOA) and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) model were established based on spectral features and textural features. Compared to other models, feature fusion model showed an excellent result with an accuracy of 98.89%. Experimental results suggested that HSI technology can be served as an effective method for rice detection.

The chemical compound 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2-AP) is a major contributor to the fragrance of rice. This report presents the first efforts towards determining the quantities of 2-AP in rice by grating-based visible–near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy using a diverse set of rice varieties. Calibration models generated by preprocessing treatments using Design of Experiment (DoE) and ‘one-variable-at-atime’ (OVAT) methods were compared and optimized. A modified partial least squares model with “2, 3, 1, 1”/SNV and 174 variables yielded a coefficient of determination for calibration values of 0.978. The results showed that a DoE-based preprocessing selection could efficiently and accurately optimize 2-AP calibration models, with advantages over OVAT. The findings of this study provide high-throughput screening technology for high-precision fragrance quality breeding, monitoring and control in the rice industry. The method demonstrated here also has potential for application in many other disciplines, including identification of plant fragrances and quality control of cereal products.

Bacteriophages are intended as a new approach to control foodborne pathogens in food matrices. In the present study, a novel phage ST BD specific for Salmonella was isolated from buffalo dung samples. The efficiency of plating and scanning electron microscopy analysis revealed the high lytic activity of phage ST BD against Salmonella Typhimurium with a huge burst size (396 PFU/cell) and a short latent period (40 min). Potential phage ST BD showed high stability at 4 °C storage temperature with only 10% reduction in phage activity. Transmission electron microscopy micrographs revealed that phage ST BD belongs to the Myoviridae family. The whole genome sequencing data revealed that phage ST BD was inclined towards completely lytic and showed absence of toxins, antibiotic resistance and virulence genes. Comparative genome analysis suggested that phage ST BD constitutes a novel member of the genus Duplodnaviria and family Myoviridae. Artificially contaminated dairy food matrices such as milk, cheese and paneer treated with high MOI of lytic phage ST BD demonstrated extensive inhibition of Salmonella Typhimurium growth (p ≤ 0.05), resulting in 5.4, 4.6 and 4.1 log CFU/mL reduction, respectively, after 1 day as compared to untreated control and a remarkable reduction was observed after 6 days of phage treatment with subsequent 7.0, 6.9 and 5.6 log CFU/mL of Salmonella growth reduction, respectively, at a storage temperature of 4 °C. The identified novel phage provides a basis for the future development of potential biocontrol candidates against Salmonella in a wide variety of food matrices.

A substantial proportion of foodborne illnesses arise at home as a result of poor food handling practices. Consumer information intervention has usually been conducted to prevent such illness; however, few studies have examined the spillover effect of these interventions. This study aimed to identify whether an information intervention focused on one target food handling behavior has spillover effects on other aspects of food handling behaviors (nontargeting behaviors) through a randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted in rural China. The results estimated by the difference-in-difference model reveal that information intervention has a significant impact on both target and nontarget food handling behaviors. The existence of positive spillover effects is mainly due to the release of limited attention resources from information interventions and the motivation of consumers to maintain other aspects of behaviors as regulated as the target behaviors. In addition, the results also show that being surveyed spurs a stimulus to subsequent behavior. The survey effect is taken into account when calculating the spillover effects in this paper, so a more accurate estimate is obtained. These findings can motivate governments to conduct more consumer education campaigns, especially in emerging countries, and can also contribute to experimental design, data collection methods and cost‒benefit analyses of interventions, thereby helping researchers avoid biased parameter estimation.

In this study, an active film was developed based on β-glucan (BG)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/clove essential oil (CEO) and its preservation effects on fresh broad bean pods were examined. The impact of different BG:PVA ratios (50:50, 40:60 and 30:70) and CEO concentrations (0.25%, 0.50% and 1.00%) on the capacities of film were investigated. A BG:PVA ratio of 40:60 and CEO content of 0.5% (w/w) were adopted following the optimization of the physical, mechanical and barrier capacities of the blended film. Subsequent characterization of the film via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy suggested that the BG hydroxyl groups interacted well with the PVA and CEO, and the good heat stability of the BG/PVA-CEO film was confirmed via thermal gravimetric analysis-differential scanning calorimetry. Importantly, the BG/PVA-CEO film also showed good antimicrobial activity. Moreover, the BG/PVA-0.5% CEO film effectively preserved fresh broad bean pods over a 30-day storage period, based on assessments of appearance, firmness, weight loss and the enzyme activities. These results indicate the promising applicability of the novel BG/PVA-CEO films as active coating materials for the preservation of fresh produce and food products.

Thymol/waxy maize starch nanoemulsion (TWSN) was successfully prepared via dynamic high-pressure micro-fluidization (DHPM) and applied in pullulan-based active food packaging material (P-TWSN). The properties of TWSN and its effect on the structural and physical-chemical properties of P-TWSN were then investigated. Concurrently, the impact of TWSN (0, 5, 15, 20, 25 mL) on the storage quality and flavor substances of strawberries coated by film-forming solution (FFS) were investigated by gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS). The results demonstrated that the prepared TWSN exhibited remarkable storage stability, maintaining a particle size of 127.9 ± 1.02 nm and a ζ-potential of −32.4 ± 0.42 mV. As TWSN concentration increased, P-TWSN exhibited a smooth and compact morphology, characterized by the presence of bubble-like pores and granular protrusions. Additionally, the FTIR peaks corresponded to the stretching vibration of -OH group of TWSN and related materials were shifted to lower wavenumbers. Furthermore, the materials with increasing content of TWSN exhibited excellent water solubility, enlarged WVP, stable thermal property and superior antibacterial capacity against gram-positive (S.aureus) than gram-negative (E. coli) bacteria. Strawberry samples sprayed by FFS with 20 mL TWSN exhibited the slowest decline in shrinkage, weight loss, titrable acidity, highest value of firmness, total soluble solids, and lower content of ascorbic acid and viable microorganisms in comparison with other dosages. Additionally, the contents of esters and alcohols in treated strawberries reached the summit on the fourth day of storage and subsequently declined, while the ketone content exhibited a downward trend with increasing TWSN, particularly in the samples with 20 and 25 mL TWSN. The studies identified an efficient method for preparing starch-based nanoemulsion by DHPM, which could be prospective in bio-active packaging materials.