Current Opinion in Food Science最新文献

Food outbreaks caused by viruses have become important worldwide, and food or contact surfaces can be a vehicle for their transition. This review discusses data on the transfer and survival of norovirus, and hepatitis-A and -E virus, the main viruses transmitted by consuming contaminated food. Respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was also discussed due to its documented persistence on food surfaces and environments. The use of surrogates for studying viruses in food and surfaces and mathematical modeling of virus data were explored. The findings show that the stability of viral particles in different foods and surface materials is influenced by a range of conditions as are transfer rates to foods. This review can help to adopt risk management practices to minimize food contamination caused by foodborne viruses and direct important findings regarding the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 and food or food-contact surfaces.

Coffee (Coffea) is one of the largest-selling beverages in the world, creating a large amount of waste. The spent coffee grounds (SCG) contain numerous organic compounds (fatty acids, amino acids, polysaccharides and polyphenols) and minerals with extremely high economic value for recycling and thus have the potential to be used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Several studies have indicated various products that can be valorised from SCG, including biofuel, biopolymers, food components (such as bioactives, i.e. antioxidants), food additives, animal feed and construction materials. This review briefly summarises the composition of SCG, mainly focusing on bio-reusing products and standard recycling methods available today, with trends for future applications and potential directions.

The BIOPEP-UWM database has recently become a standard tool supporting food peptidomics. The BIOPEP-UWM website provides an access to the databases annotating the following groups of compounds: proteins, bioactive peptides, allergenic proteins and their epitopes, sensory peptides and amino acids, peptides with bioactivity predicted in silico, as well as amino acids with modifications. The database enables, for example, finding bioactive or taste-affecting fragments in protein or peptide sequences, calculating quantitative parameters describing proteins as precursors of bioactive peptides, and simulating proteolysis. It is applied for works harnessing bioinformatics alone or integrating in silico predictions and calculations with laboratory experiments. Apart from the above, the future plan envisages the extension of BIOPEP-UWM applications as a tool supporting design of technological processes in the food industry as well as food science education.

Salmonella, a Gram-negative Enterobacteriaceae bacterium, is a common foodborne pathogen that causes diarrhea. Biofilms produced by Salmonella adhere to food and utensil surfaces, making it challenging to disrupt toxin production. Preventing biofilm formation and eliminating established biofilms are crucial for ensuring food safety. Understanding the mechanisms underlying biofilm formation is fundamental for controlling Salmonella contamination. The use of transcriptomic technologies, such as RNA sequencing, enables the examination of variations in gene expression in diverse environments and growth conditions at the RNA level, thereby serving as an approach to analyze and delineate the fundamental Salmonella biofilm formation mechanisms. This study reviewed the mechanisms of Salmonella biofilm formation from a transcriptomics perspective and proposed potential methods for biofilm analysis and management.

Metabolic syndrome (MetS), obesity, and diabetes mellitus (DM) are the most common metabolic disorders (MDs) in the world, characterized by abnormalities in body's metabolic processes. The typical diagnosis of MDs is usually executed by monitoring the levels of specific biochemical markers, but diagnostic imaging may provide valuable complementary information in MDs, offering advantages in diagnosis, target organ monitoring, follow-up, and development of new therapeutic approaches. The aim of this review is to summarize and discuss the studies published in the literature about the connection between images deriving from the diagnostic techniques and the key biochemical markers in the main MDs, in order to gain a comprehensive view of the different disorders.

The emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), responsible for causing coronavirus disease-2019, has significantly impacted public health and the global economy. This study investigates the potential transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via food and its implications for food safety. Many experimental studies demonstrated the survival and inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 in various food matrices. Considering several factors such as the virus's limited survivability in the gastrointestinal tract and the infectious dose, the transmission possibility of SARS-CoV-2 through contaminated food could be low.

The emergence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria represents an increasing threat to public health, making it necessary to search for alternatives to control pathogenic microorganisms. Phenolics, found in leaves, stems, roots, flowers, and fruits can potentially be used as antimicrobials in foods. The most extensively studied compounds are eugenol, carvacrol, thymol, resveratrol, cinnamaldehyde, and pyrogallol. They have demonstrated antimicrobial properties against foodborne pathogens through different mechanisms of action. Phenolics may synergize with antimicrobials, expanding the spectrum of action of the antimicrobial or even reversing antimicrobial resistance. Furthermore, they can modulate genes associated with bacterial resistance and virulence, with scientific evidence that phenolic compounds can help mitigate antimicrobial resistance in foodborne pathogens. This review describes the antibacterial potential of phenolic compounds against foodborne pathogens, their synergistic action with clinical antimicrobial agents, and their capacity to modulate the expression of bacterial genes, aiming to answer whether these compounds can mitigate antimicrobial resistance in foodborne pathogens.

Protozoan parasites are underrecognized foodborne pathogens that contaminate bivalve shellfish worldwide. This review highlights recent advances in our understanding on the global distribution of shellfish contaminated with Toxoplasma gondii, Cryptosporidium spp., and/or Giardia spp., all of which are zoonotic pathogens that can infect people and marine wildlife. We discuss a framework for estimating the risk of contracting illness from ingestion of protozoa in shellfish and identify critical gaps in current knowledge that must be addressed for accurate risk estimation. Notably, without accounting for parasite viability, risk assessment models are likely to overestimate the true risk of illness, which may result in undue harm to both consumers and the livelihoods of aquaculture producers.