Implications For Food Quality Research Articles

Genomic and Phenotypic Characterization of Mastitis-Causing Staphylococci and Probiotic Lactic Acid Bacteria Isolated from Raw Sheep's Milk.

Dairy products play a crucial role in human nutrition as they provide essential nutrients. However, the presence of diverse microorganisms in these products can pose challenges to food safety and quality. Here, we provide a comprehensive molecular characterization of a diverse collection of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and staphylococci isolated from raw sheep's milk. Whole-genome sequencing, phenotypic characterization, and bioinformatics were employed to gain insight into the genetic composition and functional attributes of these bacteria. Bioinformatics analysis revealed the presence of various genetic elements. Important toxin-related genes in staphylococci that contribute to their pathogenic potential were identified and confirmed using phenotypic assays, while adherence-related genes, which are essential for attachment to host tissues, surfaces in the dairy environment, and the creation of biofilms, were also present. Interestingly, the Staphylococcus aureus isolates belonged to sequence type 5, which largely consists of methicillin-susceptible isolates that have been involved in severe nosocomial infections. Although genes encoding methicillin resistance were not identified, multiple resistance genes (RGs) conferring resistance to aminoglycosides, macrolides, and fluroquinolones were found. In contrast, LAB had few inherently present RGs and no virulence genes, suggesting their likely safe status as food additives in dairy products. LAB were also richer in bacteriocins and carbohydrate-active enzymes, indicating their potential to suppress pathogens and effectively utilize carbohydrate substrates, respectively. Additionally, mobile genetic elements, present in both LAB and staphylococci, may facilitate the acquisition and dissemination of genetic traits, including RGs, virulence genes, and metabolic factors, with implications for food quality and public health. The molecular and phenotypic characterization presented herein contributes to the effort to mitigate risks and infections (e.g., mastitis) and enhance the safety and quality of milk and products thereof.

Investigating halal food Supply chain management, halal certification and traceability on SMEs performance

This study aims to provide implications for the application of the halal logistics traceability model to food commodities in Indonesia and to be able to recommend alternative policy scenarios for the government. The system dynamic approach is used to model the traceability of halal logistics for food commodities in Indonesia. The urgency of this research is that it will contribute to improving the quality of halal logistics which has implications for the halal industry in Indonesia. This research also has implications for food quality and safety which helps food security in Indonesia, the relationship between Halal Certification and Traceability on SMEs Performance, analyzing the relationship between Halal food supply chain management and Halal Certification and Traceability. This research method is a quantitative survey, research data obtained by distributing online questionnaires to 390 food SME owners who have implemented the Halal Assurance Management System. Data analysis used a structural equation model (SEM) with SmartPLS 3.0 software. The stages of data analysis are validity, reliability and significance tests. The sampling technique used is non-probability sampling. The questionnaire used in this study uses a Google form which will be distributed to respondents. This questionnaire measurement method uses a Likert scale of 5, namely Strongly Disagree (STS), (2) Disagree Answers (TS), (3) Neutral Answers (N), (4) Agree Answers (S), Strongly Agree (SS). The independent variable used in this research is halal supply chain management. The dependent variables used in this study are halal certification and traceability and SMEs Performance. The results of this study indicate that Halal food supply chain management has a positive and significant effect on the performance of SMEs, Halal Certification and Traceability have a positive and significant effect on SMEs Performance, Halal Certification and Traceability have a positive and significant effect on Halal food supply chain management.

Imidacloprid and formulated product impacts the fatty acids and enzymatic activities in tissues of Sydney rock oysters, Saccostrea glomerata

The use of imidacloprid (IMI) and its formulated products in agriculture is a risk to aquatic organisms due to deposition into waterways from runoff and aerial spraying. However, there is limited information on the potential effects of this pesticide on commercially important shellfish, such as oysters. We investigated the impacts of IMI and Spectrum 200SC (IMI formulation) on the activity of the enzymes Glutathione-S-transferase (GST), Catalase (CAT) and Acetylcholinesterase (AChE), in different oyster tissues including the gill, adductor muscle and digestive gland. We also investigated the condition index and fatty acid composition of the flesh of oysters after 2 weeks exposure. The concentrations of IMI in the different tissues was assessed using Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) after QuEChERS extraction. Higher concentrations of IMI residues were detected in the adductor muscle of the oysters, followed by the gills and with the lowest amounts recovered from the digestive gland across all the concentrations tested. IMI and Spectrum 200SC significantly affected the gill AChE activity at 2 mg/L, but digestive gland CAT, and gill and digestive gland GST were impacted at environmentally relevant concentrations (0.01 and 0.05 mg/L). In the whole oyster, 2 weeks exposure to IMI (≥0.01 mg/L) resulted in a proportional increase in saturated fatty acids (SFA), altered the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) to SFA ratio and altered the omega 3 fatty acids (n-3) to omega 6 fatty acids (n-6) ratio, but there were no effects on the condition index of the oyster. Although the oysters responded differently to the formulated product, there was no consistent difference in the sublethal effects of analytical IMI and Spectrum 200SC. This study showed that exposure to IMI and Spectrum 200SC can significantly affect the biochemical processes and metabolites in oysters, with implications for food quality and safety.

Emersion survival manipulation in Greenshell™ mussels (Perna canaliculus): Implications for the extension of live mussels' shelf-life

Farmed adult Greenshell™ mussels were exposed to a range of conditions immediately after harvest to evaluate the effects on emersion survival and the implications for live transport. Two experiments were performed, coinciding with the mussel harvest season during summer and winter 2017. In the summer experiment, a wide range of conditions were tested to identify alternatives to be evaluated in more detail during the winter experiment. The postharvest experimental conditions selected included transient re-immersion at different temperatures, cold and heat-shock, tidal simulation, and packing with ice. These treatments aimed to either reduce postharvest stress and/or give the mussels a potentially beneficial physiological and behavioural advantage to help them cope with emersion. The mussels' responses in terms of gaping and survival differed between summer and winter, and among and within treatments. Sub-ambient temperature seawater exposure after harvest tended to improve the survival time of the mussels in both seasons, the effect being dependent on both temperature and duration of the exposure. Some of the differences observed could be explained by the conditions (in the wild and in the laboratory) to which the mussels were exposed before emersion and the different capability that each mussel has to cope with stress. However, the exact mechanisms driving these changes are not fully understood and require further investigation. This study, nevertheless, indicates that emersion survival (i.e. live mussel shelf-life) could be extended by re-immersion after harvest combined with a sub-lethal cold-shock followed by immersed recovery before transportation. If the commercial shelf-life of live product can be significantly extended, the implications for food quality and safety will also need to be evaluated. A similar approach could be applied in other shellfish such as other species of mussels as well as oysters or clams to improve shelf-life, considering their physiological capabilities and behaviour and how those are affected by environmental conditions in different seasons or regions.

Inter-Taxa Differences in Iodine Uptake by Plants: Implications for Food Quality and Contamination

Although iodine is not essential for plants, they take it up readily and, in foodchains, are significant sources of iodine for organisms with an essential requirement for it. During several nuclear accidents radioiodine has been an important component of releases of radioactivity and has caused serious contamination of foodchains. Differences in iodine uptake by different plant taxa are, therefore, important to nutritional and radioecological studies. Using techniques we have developed for a range of other elements, we analyzed inter-taxa differences in radioiodine uptake by 103 plant species and between varieties of two species, and analyzed them using a recent, phylogenetically-informed, taxonomy. The results show that there are significant differences in uptake above and below the species level. There are significant differences between Monocots and Eudicots in iodine uptake, and, in particular, hierarchical ANOVA revealed significant differences between Genera within Families. These analyses of the taxonomic origin of differences in plant uptake of iodine can help the prediction of crop contamination with radioiodine and the management of stable iodine in crops for nutritional purposes.

Temperature dependence of biological processes: Implications for food quality, safety and security

Nutrition is well outside my area of expertise although my first degree was in Agriculture in which Animal Physiology and nutrition was an important part of the course. More recently at UTas we have had several research projects the aim of which was to discover microbial sources of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Thraustochytrids were the most promising organisms and an interesting outcome was that these grew in media with no added salt without affecting PUFA production. Several studies have optimised PUFA production by varying media composition, salinity and temperature. Optimum growth rates were at 25e30 oC and continued to a minimum of 5e10 oC, similar to many other marine organisms including bacteria. That is they fit into the thermal category of psychrotropic organisms which merge with mesophiles as temperatures increase. Temperature plays a major role in the rate at which biological populations develop and potentiates the effect of other factors such as oxygen availability, salinity, hydrostatic pressure and pH. In microbiology time scales range from milliseconds for enzyme catalysed reactions to doubling times of ~7 minutes for Clostridium perfringens, to days, weeks or months for psychrophilic bacteria growing optimally, to > 3.5 billion years to reach the current level of evolutionary adaptation. The temperature dependence of biological process rates requires knowledge of microbial ecology (rate of population increase) and physiology (biochemical reaction rates and physiological control in individual cells). The integration of these disciplines into ecophysiological studies supported by omics technologies is necessary to underpin advances in understanding how to inhibit or stimulate microbial growth. At UTas we have studied the ecophysiology of food borne bacteria including pathogens and spoilage organisms for 40 years. The original aim was to produce mathematical models to predict the rate of growth or decline of populations in foods, and this continues but in the last decade we have expanded into other ecosystems. The field of Predictive Microbiology has changed the paradigm of foodmicrobiology from one of testing and retrospective reporting of results to prospective reporting based on the temperature history of a process interpreted by a predictive model. A major outcome of this work was mandating the use of the Refrigeration Index by The Australian Quarantine Inspection Service in the revised Export Control Meat and Meat Products) Order, AQIS 2005(http://www.daffa.gov.au/aqis/export/meat/elmer-3). The models developed and validated to that time were empirical and the current state of the art can be found in Corkrey et.al 2014, the abstract of which is reproduced below: “Life on Earth is capable of growing from temperatureswell below freezing to above the boiling point of water, with some organisms preferring cooler and others hotter conditions. The growth rate of each organism ultimately depends on its intracellular chemical reactions. Here we show that a thermodynamic model based on a single, rate-limiting, enzyme-catalysed reaction accurately describes population growth rates in 230 diverse strains of unicellular and multicellular organisms. Collectively these represent all three domains of life, ranging from psychrophilic to hyperthermophilic, and including the highest temperature so far observed for growth (122 C). The results provide credible estimates of thermodynamic properties of proteins and obtain, purely from organism intrinsic growth rate data, relationships betweenparameterspreviously identifiedexperimentally, thusbridgingagap between biochemistry and whole organism biology. We find that growth rates of both unicellular and multicellular life forms can be described by the same temperature dependence model. The model results provide strong support for a single highly-conserved reaction present in the last universal common ancestor (LUCA). This is remarkable in that itmeans that the growth rate dependence on temperature of unicellular and multicellular life forms that evolved over geological time spans can be explainedby the samemodel”. Progress in integrating applications in food quality, safety and security will be reported in November.

Effects of abiotic stress and crop management on cereal grain composition: implications for food quality and safety.

The effects of abiotic stresses and crop management on cereal grain composition are reviewed, focusing on phytochemicals, vitamins, fibre, protein, free amino acids, sugars, and oils. These effects are discussed in the context of nutritional and processing quality and the potential for formation of processing contaminants, such as acrylamide, furan, hydroxymethylfurfuryl, and trans fatty acids. The implications of climate change for cereal grain quality and food safety are considered. It is concluded that the identification of specific environmental stresses that affect grain composition in ways that have implications for food quality and safety and how these stresses interact with genetic factors and will be affected by climate change needs more investigation. Plant researchers and breeders are encouraged to address the issue of processing contaminants or risk appearing out of touch with major end-users in the food industry, and not to overlook the effects of environmental stresses and crop management on crop composition, quality, and safety as they strive to increase yield.

Microscopy, microstructure and displacement of proteins from interfaces: implications for food quality and digestion

The use of atomic force microscopy to visualise the molecular structure of protein-stabilised oil-water and air-water interfaces has provided new information on the microstructure of the interfaces. The images have shown the formation of heterogeneous protein networks and demonstrated how this heterogeneity affects the competitive displacement of proteins from interfaces by surfactants. The data collected have led to the discovery of a new 'orogenic' mechanism of protein displacement. This mechanism is generic and provides new insights into understanding and controlling the stability of food foams and emulsions. The present article describes the practical aspects of the orogenic model for enhancing food quality, discusses the potential implications for understanding the influence of interfacial structures in food emulsions on fat metabolism and also generic aspects of the displacement mechanism outside the food area.

Enhanced jasmonate biosynthesis in plants and possible implications for food quality

Food supply chain is long, complex and comprises different stages — from raw material production, processing, distribution to retail. There are some environmental factors, which can affect nutritional components of plants being the raw materials in the food industry. Plants have developed a number of defense mechanisms to any injuries occurring. Jasmonates — formed from linolenic acid on the allene oxide synthase pathway — are considered to play the key role in plant defense mechanisms. It has been found that there is a relationship between jasmonates and production of new proteins, glucosinolates and polyphenolic compounds. The effect of jasmonates on carbohydrates and other plant metabolites has also been reported. Jasmonates are characterised by olfactory properties and thus can exert an effect on sensory quality of foods and contribute to commercial attractiveness of foods. Moreover, the implications resulting from consumption of jasmonate-affected foods appear to be of high immensity and can have sev...

Microbial assimilation of DIN in a nitrogen rich estuary:implications for food quality and isotope studies

Microbial assimilation of DIN in a nitrogen rich estuary:implications for food quality and isotope studies

Preservation of perishable foods by new quick-freezing methods

Packaging of muscle-based foods has been a common practice since frozen foods were first exploited commercially. Like any other preservative technique, freezing muscle foods retards microbial growth and enzymatic activity, but also has implications for food quality. Ice crystal size represents a major concern because tissue damage can result in dripping losses during thawing. Recent advances in freezing techniques include methods for developing small ice crystals and modifying crystallization rates, such as high-pressure assisted freezing. Selecting appropriate freezing temperatures can contribute to extending shelf life, as can using packaging materials with selective permeability. The development of new synthetic packing materials has made it possible to package meat, poultry and seafood products more safely and attractively.