Food Safety Research Research Articles

Food safety research and improvement of the technology of cottage cheese product with the use of green buckwheat

The purpose of thе article is to study the safety indicators of the curd product, which includes cottage cheese prepared with a starter culture of direct application "Evitalia," consisting of bacteria of the genus Lactococcus (L. acidophilius), Streptococcus (Streptococcus thermophilius) and propionobacteria. Other ingredients are crushed mass from green buckwheat, candied pumpkin, cooked Jerusalem artichoke sirup, and fat emulsion based on coconut oil. The sweetness of the curd product is provided by Jerusalem artichoke sirup, whereas fat emulsion based on coconut oil enriches the product with unsaturated fatty acids and gives plasticity and uniformity of structure. The results of the study showed that the formulation with the following ingredients: 40% of cottage cheese, 40% of crushed mass from green buckwheat, 10% of candied pumpkin, 10% of coconut oil emulsion—has the best organoleptic, physico-chemical, structural and plastic properties. The ratio of milk protein of cottage cheese and vegetable protein of green buckwheat is 1:1. This allowed to obtain the chemical composition of the product: proteins—29%, fats—9%, carbohydrates—59%, ash—3%. The obtained research and technological solutions can be used at dairy industry enterprises in the production of combined dairy and vegetable products.

Nucleic Acid Detection with Ion Concentration Polarization Microfluidic Chip for Reduced Cycle Numbers of Polymerase Chain Reaction.

Nucleic acid detection is widely used in disease diagnosis, food safety, environmental monitoring and many other research fields. The continuous development of rapid and sensitive new methods to detective nucleic acid is very important for practical application. In this study, we developed a rapid nucleic-acid detection method using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) combined with electrokinetic preconcentration based on ion concentration polarization (ICP). Using a Nafion film, the proposed ICP microfluidic chip is utilized to enrich the nucleic acid molecules amplified by PCR thermal cycles. To demonstrate the capability of the microfluidic device and the hybrid nucleic-acid detection method, we present an animal-derived component detection experiment for meat product identification applications. With the reduced cycle numbers of 24 cycles, the detection can be completed in about 35 min. The experimental results show that this work can provide a microfluidic device and straightforward method for rapid detection of nucleic acids with reduced cycle numbers.

Does a corporation’s food recall strategy affect its brand image and consumers’ intention to purchase? A study in the context of cereal recall in China

PurposeFood recalls are more potentially harmful than other product recalls. This research aimed to investigate the effect of the recall strategies of food corporations on their brand image and consumers’ purchase intention.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a between-subjects experiment of 2 (corporate recall strategy: voluntary recall, mandatory recall) *3 (food recall level (severity): high, medium, low), and recruits 224 consumers involved in cereal product recall in China. The authors inductively examine the effects of voluntary and mandatory recall on consumer perception and behavior intentions in the recall process.FindingsVoluntary recall (vs. mandatory recall) will improve corporate brand responsibility image (vs. brand ability image) and consumers’ purchase intention to focal brand (vs. competitive brand and organic brand). Perceived corporate legitimacy and food safety play a mediating role. The former has a greater positive impact on brand image, and the latter has a more significant favorable influence on purchase intention. Furthermore, recall level has a moderating effect on the association between corporate recall strategy and perceived food safety, but is not significant in the effect of corporate recall strategy on perceived corporate legitimacy.Originality/valuePrevious inconsistent conclusions cannot effectively guide food corporations to manage recall strategies. This paper demonstrates the response mechanism of the recall strategy from the perspective of corporate social responsibility, which is beneficial to food safety crisis management and research.

A Review of the Construction of the Nanomaterial & Nanocomposite Based Biosensor for Different Applications

Abstract: The heightened attention to food and health safety has prompted researchers to conduct extensive research on biosensors that quickly detect foodborne microbial toxins and pathogens. Biosensors are a blessing due to their simple, cost-effective technique, but there are still some drawbacks with detection time, detection limit, and resilience. Incorporating functionalized nanomaterials into developing biosensors as catalytic tools, immobilization platforms, or optical or electroactive labels has added a new dimension to addressing these challenges. This review paper aims to discuss the construction of different types of nanomaterial-based biosensors in food safety, exosome detection and finally, cancer detection, as well as highlights the advantages of these biosensors over traditional techniques. In addition, a comparative study between the nanomaterial-based biosensors taking into account the linear range and limits of detectionin these mentioned applications was also conducted. Hence, this paper provides key insights into designing and fabricating biosensors utilizing nanomaterials and opens new avenues in disease and food safety research.

Perceived usefulness of design thinking activities for transforming research to impact

Empirical studies that investigate the effect of design thinking within complex contexts involving multiple stakeholders are rare. The aim of this study is to contribute to the literature on design thinking, by investigating the perceived usefulness of including design thinking activities into a complex research project for food safety. A survey was distributed to all participants in SafeConsume, a Horizon 2020 research project, to measure perceived usefulness of design thinking activities such as collaborative workshops, visualization tools and empathic observation studies. Bivariate correlations and one-way ANOVAs were conducted in JMP Pro 14. The results indicate that design thinking activities may be useful also for large food safety projects. Multidisciplinary collaborative workshops can generate optimism and a sense of belonging among the participants, visualization tools can contribute to simplify complex information, and empathic observation studies makes it easier to think user centric. This study is one of few that quantitatively investigate the perceived usefulness of implementing design thinking into a multidisciplinary research project, and the findings contribute to a better understanding of the perceived effects of implementing design thinking into a large complex food safety research projects.

Current Research in Food Safety and Biotechnology

Biotechnology is a field at the interface of biology and industry, being part of the applied sciences field [...]

Striving for an adaptive, iterative, and proactive food safety system

Striving for an adaptive, iterative, and proactive food safety system FoodSafety4EU contributes to enhancing common efforts and building synergies within the EU Food Safety System through the co-design of an integrated and multi-stakeholder platform. This enables a network of FSS actors at the national, European and international levels to access resources efficiently, synchronise food safety research strategies, and share and exchange scientific knowledge.

Catalytic hairpin activated gold-magnetic/gold-core-silver-shell rapid self-assembly for ultrasensitive Staphylococcus aureus sensing via PDMS-based SERS platform

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) has been identified as a marker of food contamination, closely associated with human health. This work designs a sensitive and rapid bio-detection strategy for S. aureus based on hybridization chain reaction-assisted surface enhanced Raman scattering (HCR-assisted-SERS) signal amplification. In this approach, the interaction between the aptamer (Apt) and its partial complementary DNA strands (cDNA) fabricated on the surface of gold-assisted magnetic nanoparticles (Au-MNPs) and the subsequent detachment of the cDNA results in the activation of the HCR process. In the HCR, a pair of hairpin structured DNA probes (H1 and H2) with sticky ends self-assembles to form a long DNA polymer. Subsequently, the output and amplification of the SERS signal were performed by conjugating 4-ATP modified Au@Ag NPs with the obtained DNA polymer via a specific Ag–S bond, and further collected through a self-administered polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) cone-shaped support array. The precise quantification of S. aureus was performed in the concentration range of 28 to 2.8 × 106 cfu/mL, achieving a detection limit of 0.25 cfu/mL. This strategy was further applied to S. aureus detection in spiked milk samples with good recoveries (91–102%) and the relative standard deviation (4.35–8.41%). The sensing platform also showed satisfactory validation results (p > 0.05) using the traditional plate counting method. The proposed HCR-assisted SERS probe can be extended to other foodborne pathogenic bacteria types via engineering appropriate Apt and DNA initiators, thus, inspiring widespread applications in food safety and biomedical research.

Standardised Sampling Approach for Investigating Pathogens or Environmental Chemicals in Wild Game at Community Hunts.

Simple SummaryWild game can host pathogens capable of infecting humans, livestock, and companion animals or accumulate environmental chemicals that may be transferred via food of animal origin. For food safety research, as well as for various other scientific purposes, the provision of a sufficient number of samples without unnecessary disturbance or killing of animals is a major limitation. With the presented approach, it was possible to obtain samples from game animals killed as part of standard ungulate management practice. Examples of organs, tissues, and other matrices that have been used in wild ungulate studies in Europe and that may be obtained through this approach are summarised as well. The basis of this approach was a framework agreement with the BImA, whereby federal forest officials carried out sampling with the help of hunters at drive hunts from 2017/18 to 2020/21 in Brandenburg, Germany. Numerous samples from four ungulate species were obtained. The number of sampled animals per hunt differed between hunting districts and hunting seasons. Districts with higher hunting bags also promise higher sampling success. This approach can serve as the basis for long-term monitoring of animal and public health threats associated with wildlife and is adaptable to other regions.Wildlife may host pathogens and chemicals of veterinary and public health relevance, as well as pathogens with significant economic relevance for domestic livestock. In conducting research on the occurrence and distribution of these agents in wildlife, a major challenge is the acquisition of a sufficient number of samples coupled with efficient use of manpower and time. The aim of this article is to present the methodology and output of a sampling approach for game animals, which was implemented from 2017/18 to 2020/21 at drive hunts in Brandenburg, Germany. The central element was a framework agreement with the BImA, whereby federal forest officials and other hunters collected most of the samples during field dressing. Further samples of game carcasses were obtained by scientists during subsequent gathering at a collection point. Altogether, 3185 samples from 938 wild ungulates of four species were obtained for various studies analysing—in this case—food-borne agents in game animals. Sampling was representative and reflected the proportional distribution of ungulate species hunted in Brandenburg. Hunting district and hunting season strongly influenced hunting bag and hence sampling success. This sampling approach was demonstrated to be a suitable basis for monitoring programs, that can be adapted to other regions.

Blockchain-Based Information Supervision Model for Rice Supply Chains.

Rice is a major food crop around the world, and its various quality and safety problems are closely related to human health. As an important area of food safety research, the rice supply chain has attracted increasing attention. Based on blockchain technology, this study investigated problems of data privacy and circulation efficiency caused by complex rice supply networks, long circulation cycles, and various risk factors in each link. First, we deconstructed the quality and safety of each link of the rice supply chain at the information level and established a key information classification table for each link. On that basis, we built a rice supply chain information supervision model based on blockchain. Various encryption algorithms are used to secure the sensitive data of enterprises in the supply chain to meet regulators' needs for efficient supervision. Moreover, we propose a practical Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus algorithm that scores the credit of enterprise nodes, optimizes the selection strategy of master nodes, and ensures high efficiency and low cost. Then, we built a prototype system based on the open-source framework of hyperledger fabric, analyzed the model's viability, and implemented the system using cases. The results indicated that the proposed system can optimize the information supervision process of rice supply chain regulators and provide a feasible solution for the quality and safety supervision of grain and oil.

The benefits, drawbacks, and potential future challenges of the most commonly used ultrasound-based hurdle combinations technologies in food preservation

It is being investigated whether ultrasound can be used in conjunction with existing or new food preservation techniques in order to increase the scope of ultrasound's application in the food industry. The goal of this review was to look into the most widely used traditional food preservation ultrasound combination technologies, known as hurdle technology. Using ultrasound-based hurdle combinations will be examined for their advantages, disadvantages, and potential future challenges. To account for advancements in food preservation technology using ultrasound-based hurdles since the turn of the millennium, the location of the study and the type of journal were not taken into consideration in order to include all available sources of expertise. Food preservation technologies based on ultrasound and food safety research may help. Despite extensive research into different combinations of this new technology with traditional hurdles, future research, development, implementation, and commercialization challenges will be numerous.

An Entity Relation Extraction Method for Few-Shot Learning on the Food Health and Safety Domain.

In recent years, entity relation extraction has been a critical technique to help people analyze complex structured text data. However, there is no advanced research in food health and safety to help people analyze the complex concepts between food and human health and their relationships. This paper proposes an entity relation extraction method FHER for the few-shot learning in the food health and safety domain. For few-shot learning in the food health and safety domain, we propose three methods that effectively improve the performance of entity relationship extraction. The three methods are applied to the self-built data sets FH and MHD. The experimental results show that the method can effectively extract domain-related entities and their relations in a small sample size environment.

Different Methods, Novel Tools towards the Synthesis of Nanoparticles and Applications in Engineering, Chemical, Physical Sciences and Technology

Nano particles have gained special attention in recent years due to their remarkable electrical, magnetic, optical, and mechanical capabilities, and they offer a variety of uses in all sectors of engineering. Gold nanoparticles, for instance, are catalytic when they are 10 nm in size, whereas nanoparticles with a short radius of curvature and angular forms have better catalytic capabilities. Co-precipitation nanoparticle production is a simple approach that results in a wide range of nanoparticle sizes. Top-down and bottom-up techniques used to create mono-dispersed spherical bismuth (Bi) NPs. These Nanoparticles have outstanding colloidal characteristics. Sputtering is the technique for creating NPs that involves hitting solid surfaces with the high energy particles like gas or plasma. In an aqueous solution, gold nanoparticles were created by using a laser ablation approach. A zeta potentiometer is often used to assess surface charges and their dispersal constancy in a solution. Several industry and technology sectors, including IT, medicine, energy, transportation, homeland security, food safety, and environmental research, are being significantly improved, if not revolutionized, by nano-technology.

Food Supply Chain Safety Research Trends From 1997 to 2020: A Bibliometric Analysis.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of the global food supply chain, strengthened consumers' awareness of the traceability system throughout the supply chain, and gradually changed consumers' consumption concepts and consumption patterns. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse the relevant literature on food safety in the food supply chain, examine its current status, hot spots, and development trends, and provide some suggestions for academics and relevant government departments in food supply chain safety research.MethodsWe collected the literature on the food safety research of the food supply chain from the Scopus database, used BibExcel to count the subject categories, published journals, geographical distributions, research institutions, authors, and keywords in the literature, and used Pajek software to analyse the keywords in the literature, perform co-occurrence analysis, draw related knowledge maps, and perform cluster analysis on primary keywords. Finally, to study the development trend, we used CorTexT software to illustrate the theme evolution path map in this research field.ResultsThe keyword visualization network revealed the following key research topics: (1) food safety at the consumer end of the food supply chain, (2) food safety management in the food supply chain, (3) risk management of food safety in the food safety chain, and (4) food safety at the production end of the food supply chain.ConclusionsAfter comprehensive discussion and analysis, we concluded that food supply chain management may be a hot topic in the future, especially in traceability management combined with the blockchain. It is necessary to explore in-depth how the blockchain can affect the food supply chain to provide a theoretical basis for managing the latter.

Use of Focus Groups to Identify Food Safety Risks for Older Adults in the U.S.

Older adults are vulnerable to foodborne illness; however, many do not follow safe food handling guidelines that would reduce their risk of infection. Virtual focus groups were used to explore older adults’ food handling and consumption practices and to understand how to apply the Health Belief Model for food safety research with respect to older adults. Thirty-nine adults between the ages of 56 and 80 participated in the study. Most participants reported eating poultry and eggs, whereas few reported eating precut fruit or raw sprouts. The majority were not using a cooking thermometer for all types of poultry and did report washing raw poultry. Participants were generally resistant to the idea of heating deli meats. Most focus group participants did not perceive themselves as being personally susceptible to foodborne illness. They did, however, express food safety concerns related to specific foods, such as melons and bagged salads, and they reported taking precautions to limit health risks from these foods. Regarding the Health Belief Model, our results indicate that the construct of perceived susceptibility could be expanded to include perceived risk, which refers to an individual’s belief about the likelihood that a food might be contaminated with a foodborne pathogen. These results should be confirmed among a nationally representative sample of older adults.

Laniakea@ReCaS: exploring the potential of customisable Galaxy on-demand instances as a cloud-based service

BackgroundImproving the availability and usability of data and analytical tools is a critical precondition for further advancing modern biological and biomedical research. For instance, one of the many ramifications of the COVID-19 global pandemic has been to make even more evident the importance of having bioinformatics tools and data readily actionable by researchers through convenient access points and supported by adequate IT infrastructures. One of the most successful efforts in improving the availability and usability of bioinformatics tools and data is represented by the Galaxy workflow manager and its thriving community. In 2020 we introduced Laniakea, a software platform conceived to streamline the configuration and deployment of “on-demand” Galaxy instances over the cloud. By facilitating the set-up and configuration of Galaxy web servers, Laniakea provides researchers with a powerful and highly customisable platform for executing complex bioinformatics analyses. The system can be accessed through a dedicated and user-friendly web interface that allows the Galaxy web server’s initial configuration and deployment.Results“Laniakea@ReCaS”, the first instance of a Laniakea-based service, is managed by ELIXIR-IT and was officially launched in February 2020, after about one year of development and testing that involved several users. Researchers can request access to Laniakea@ReCaS through an open-ended call for use-cases. Ten project proposals have been accepted since then, totalling 18 Galaxy on-demand virtual servers that employ ~ 100 CPUs, ~ 250 GB of RAM and ~ 5 TB of storage and serve several different communities and purposes. Herein, we present eight use cases demonstrating the versatility of the platform.ConclusionsDuring this first year of activity, the Laniakea-based service emerged as a flexible platform that facilitated the rapid development of bioinformatics tools, the efficient delivery of training activities, and the provision of public bioinformatics services in different settings, including food safety and clinical research. Laniakea@ReCaS provides a proof of concept of how enabling access to appropriate, reliable IT resources and ready-to-use bioinformatics tools can considerably streamline researchers’ work.

Food safety considerations and research priorities for the cultured meat and seafood industry.

Cell-cultured meat and seafood offer a sustainable opportunity to meet the world's increasing demand for protein in a climate-changed world. A responsible, data-driven approach to assess and demonstrate safety of cell-cultured meat and seafood can support consumer acceptance and help fully realize the potential of these products. As an initial step toward a thorough demonstration of safety, this review identifies hazards that could be introduced during manufacturing, evaluates applicability of existing safety assessment approaches, and highlights research priorities that could support safe commercialization. Input was gathered from members of the cultured meat and seafood industry, researchers, regulators, and food safety experts. A series of workshops were held with 87 industry representatives and researchers to create a modular manufacturing process diagram, which served as a framework to identify potential chemical and biological hazards along the steps of the manufacturing process that could affect the safety of a final food product. Interviews and feedback on draft documents validated the process diagram and supported hazard identification and evaluation of applicable safety methods. Most hazards are not expected to be novel; therefore, safety assessment methods from a range of fields, such as conventional and novel foods, foods produced from biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and so forth, are likely to be applicable. However, additional assessment of novel inputs or products with significant differences from existing foods may be necessary. Further research on the safety of the inputs and associated residues, potential for contamination, and development of standardized safety assessment approaches (particularly animal-free methods) is recommended.

Sensor Applications in Analysis of Drugs and Formulations

Biosensors are currently widely used in biomedical diagnostics, as well as point-of-care assessment of therapy and disease advancement, environmental sensing, food safety, drug development, forensics, and biomedical research. Biosensors may be developed using several different approaches. Due to the growing requirement for efficient and low-cost analytical methods, biosensors have gained increasing attention for application in the quality analysis of pharmaceuticals and other pharmaceutically relevant analytes. Biosensors enable the analysis of active ingredients in pharmaceutical formulations as well as the determination of degraded products and intermediates in biological matrices. The current study discusses several types of biosensors and their applications in drug analysis and formulations.

Towards improving food safety in Cambodia: Current status and emerging opportunities

Cambodia has made significant efforts to improve nutritional outcomes while demonstrating increasing interest in ensuring that food safety challenges do not negate these efforts. This integrative review examines food safety in Cambodia to identify areas where efforts, both existing and recommended, could focus to best limit Cambodians’ exposure to foodborne disease. The review considers: 1) documented foodborne disease outbreaks in Cambodia; 2) aggregated food safety research taking place in Cambodia; 3) current food safety regulatory structures in the country; and 4) gaps in food safety knowledge or practices. Lastly, the review proposes an framework to bridge food safety gaps through the integration of improved surveillance, targeted intervention research informed, and a comprehensive understanding of Cambodians motivations, opportunities, and capabilities to adopt food safety practices.

FAO/WHO Joint Expert Meeting on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA): Twenty Years of International Microbiological Risk Assessment.

Since the late 1990s, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) has convened expert meetings and consultations to address the microbiological risk assessment (MRA). These meetings are held to provide scientific advice in response to requests for from Codex Alimentarius, the international food standard-setting body. Individuals participate in the FAO/WHO joint expert meetings on the microbiological risk assessment (JEMRA) in their personal capacity, as technical experts, yet bring diverse regional and national perspectives that contribute to practical applications, particularly for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Over 370 experts from around the globe have contributed to the meeting outcomes that have been published in nearly 40 monographs in the FAO/WHO microbial risk assessment (MRA) series, addressing particular food commodities with microbial hazard(s) combinations or a methodological aspect of microbial risk assessment. FAO/WHO MRA series inform Codex decision-making for the development of international standards for safe food and faire trade in food products; are consulted by risk managers such as food safety authorities and food business operators to make science-based decisions; and are used by academics to advance food safety research and educate the next generation of food safety professionals.