Food Production Environments Research Articles

The activity of (S)-hydroprene space spray against three stored products pests in a simulated food production environment

The synthetic juvenile hormone analogue (JHA) hydroprene was applied as a space spray against three species of stored products insect. Food media in glass crystallising dishes was placed in open and in enclosed situations under simulated food production conditions. The area was treated with hydroprene on three occasions: three months before the introduction of insect eggs into the food media, two days before infestation of the media, and three months after infestation. Space spray applications of the commercial formulation of hydroprene (Protrol®) were conducted using a cold fogger at a rate of 18 mg/m 2 floor area. Hydroprene, which appeared to accumulate in the food media, disrupted the normal development of the three species tested leading to lengthened larval development time and increased sterility in adults. With food media in the open, non-deformed adult emergence was reduced by 100% for Tribolium castaneum and Ephestia cautella and by 94% for Tribolium confusum. With the food media enclosed, to simulate the situations found in food processing machinery, the effect of hydroprene was somewhat reduced but was still considered promising.

A small outbreak of listeriosis associated with smoked mussels

Two perinatal listeriosis cases in Auckland, New Zealand, which were diagnosed during November and December 1992 gave histories of consuming Brand X smoked mussels. Listeria monocytogenes was isolated from an unopened packet of mussels collected from the refrigerator of one of the cases. Cultures of L. monocytogenes from the two patients were indistinguishable from those recovered from the mussels by serogrouping and DNA macrorestriction analysis using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). PFGE analysis of isolates of an additional fifteen clinical cases caused by L. monocytogenes serogroup 1/2 which occurred in New Zealand during 1991 and 1992, revealed two more isolates with indistinguishable PFGE patterns. PFGE analysis of a further 222 L. monocytogenes serogroup 1/2 isolated in New Zealand from food and the environment did not reveal any more cultures with the Brand X PFGE type. A combination of serotyping, phage typing, DNA restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (RFLP), cadmium and arsenic sensitivity testing, and PFGE analysis was used to subtype 38 isolates of L. monocytogenes. The isolates comprised: (a) the isolates from four patients; (b) 26 isolates from 15 packets of Brand X mussel products from retail sale, the processing factory, and the refrigerator of one of the patients; (c) seven isolates from environmental swabs taken in the processing factory; and (d) an isolate from Brand X mussel product from a wholesaler in the United Kingdom. The isolates from three of the clinical cases, 26 of the products and four from the factory environment were indistinguishable using all the subtyping systems. This is the first description from New Zealand of a link between cases of listeriosis, a contaminated food, and the food production environment which was microbiologically confirmed using a combination of subtyping methods for L. monocytogenes.

Food Production and Agricultural Environment towards the 21st Century

Food Production and Agricultural Environment towards the 21st Century

Quantitative Analysis of Sugar Solutions Using a Novel Fiber-Optic-Based Sapphire ATR Accessory

Quantitative analysis of sugar mixtures in solution is important in the soft drinks and brewing industries. Existing infrared sampling methods based on attenuated total reflectance (ATR) generally use crystal materials that do not have direct contact approval in food process environments. Sapphire is an attractive alternative, being hard, inert, and nontoxic. This work discloses a novel sapphire ATR crystal, built into a stainless steel-housed fiber-optic probe, suitable for use in a food production environment. The probe has been used to perform quantitative analysis of sucrose, glucose, and fructose mixtures in solutions, with the use of principal components regression (PCR) as the calibration method, and internal cross-validation to assess the predictive ability. Good prediction results were obtained.

The sensitivity of vegetative cells and ascospores of some food spoilage yeasts to sanitisers

The relative tolerances of the vegetative cells and ascospore-rich suspensions of two yeast species to sanitisers commonly employed in the food industry were compared using a suspension test procedure. The yeasts. Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia anomala had been isolated from a bakery environment and implicated as potential spoilage microorganisms. The sanitisers included two quaternary ammonium compounds, an amphoteric-based sanitiser and a hypochlorite. The test assessed the ability of the disinfecting agents to destroy the ascospore-rich populations within the times and concentrations recommended to sanitise surfaces in food production environments. Vegetative cells of S. cerevisiae were more sensitive than the vegetative cells of P. cerevisiae were more sensitive than the to be more susceptible to sanitiser challenge than the ascospore-containing populations.