Safety Of Food Ingredients Research Articles

Engineered Nanomaterial Coatings for Food Packaging: Design, Manufacturing, Regulatory, and Sustainability Implications.

The food industry is one of the most regulated businesses in the world and follows strict internal and regulated requirements to ensure product reliability and safety. In particular, the industry must ensure that biological, chemical, and physical hazards are controlled from the production and distribution of raw materials to the consumption of the finished product. In the United States, the FDA regulates the efficacy and safety of food ingredients and packaging. Traditional packaging materials such as paper, aluminum, plastic, and biodegradable compostable materials have gradually evolved. Coatings made with nanotechnology promise to radically improve the performance of food packaging materials, as their excellent properties improve the appearance, taste, texture, and shelf life of food. This review article highlights the role of nanomaterials in designing and manufacturing anti-fouling and antimicrobial coatings for the food packaging industry. The use of nanotechnology coatings as protective films and sensors to indicate food quality levels is discussed. In addition, their assessment of regulatory and environmental sustainability is developed. This review provides a comprehensive perspective on nanotechnology coatings that can ensure high-quality nutrition at all stages of the food chain, including food packaging systems for humanitarian purposes.

Land suitability study for the development of rice production in Moruku Village, Papua Pegunungan Province to support food security

Yahukimo Regency is one of the districts in Papua Island which has high food insecurity. The staple food of the local community is generally tubers. However, changing consumption patterns from tubers to rice is one of the challenges and problems for local governments to ensure the sustainability and safety of food ingredients. The purpose of this study was to determine the chemical and physical quality of the soil in the area of food crop cultivation development, as well as engineering recommendations for the development of rice cultivation technology based on the results of soil quality analysis in the study area. The research was conducted in Dekai District, Yahukimo Regency using a descriptive qualitative research approach using an experimental method. Analysis of the physical and chemical properties of the soil was carried out at the Bogor ICBB Laboratory. The results showed that the organic C content in the soil was included in class S1, meaning it was suitable for rice cultivation. However, the level of acidity and indications of levels of Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), and Zinc (Zn) are very high. While the results of nutrient analysis available on the parameters Total N, P2O5 and K2O are all included in class S1, meaning that the nutrients available in the soil are suitable for the development of lowland rice cultivation. For this reason, it is suggested that technological engineering be carried out, namely with a soil washing system on agricultural land, applying dolomite lime, using organic fertilizers, and selecting varieties that have a level of adaptation and tolerance to high acidity. What is novel in this study is the chemical and physical properties of the soil which can be further identified as an effort to determine the potential for new natural resources in the research area.

Out of balance: conflicts of interest persist in food chemicals determined to be generally recognized as safe

Manufacturers of chemicals added to food are responsible for determining that the use of their products is safe. There are two major legal definitions of chemicals in food: (1) food additives which includes ingredients and chemicals indirectly entering food from packaging and processing equipment, and (2) generally recognized as safe (GRAS) substances mostly used as ingredients. The law requires food additives to undergo approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before they are sold, but it GRAS substances are exempted from pre-market approval. In 1997, FDA created a voluntary program for manufacturers to submit their chemical’s safety determination in the form of a GRAS notice to the agency. Manufacturers make GRAS determinations regardless of whether they voluntarily submit a notice to FDA for review. They rely on their own employees, the employee of a hired consulting firm or a panel of experts, known as GRAS panel, to review the safety information. Because this process determines whether a chemical is safe for use in food, conflicts of interest and biases need to be avoided or minimized to credibly ensure food is safe. Recently, FDA has published guidance for industry on best practices to convene GRAS panels to manage conflicts of interest and reduce biases that have plagued the process. Here, we perform a qualitative assessment of the compliance of GRAS panels with basic elements of FDA’s guidance. We assessed 403 GRAS notices filed by FDA between 2015 and 2020 and identified whether a GRAS panel was convened and by whom, its members, affiliations, and relationships between panelists and panel conveners. Then, we compared FDA’s recommendations against the information included in the notices voluntarily submitted by manufacturers. We found no evidence that GRAS panels have adhered to FDA’s guidance. Panels are populated from a very small pool of professionals; we found that seven panel members alone occupied almost half of all available panel positions and that they often serve together. Against guidance recommendations, ad-hoc panels have been substituted by panels with recurring members in hired consulting firms’ payroll. The widespread persistence of conflicts of interest, appearance of conflict and bias in GRAS determinations continue to put the health of Americans at risk and undermine confidence in the safety of food ingredients in the US market. FDA should require notice for all GRAS determinations including how the financial conflicts of interest of those who make these determinations are minimized.

Current status of the novel food ingredient safety evaluation system.

Increasing demand for new foods, technological development, and vegan market growth have led to an increase in new food ingredients, so the need for safety assessment of these ingredients is important. Representative safety assessment systems are the Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) notification of the Food and Drug Administration in the USA and the novel food system of the European Food Safety Authority in the European Union. GRAS is a notification system for information on food ingredients, food additives and functional foods under the responsibility of the applicant, while the novel food system assesses the safety of food ingredients excluding food additives. In Korea, a safety evaluation system is established for temporary food ingredients, which includes food ingredients without a domestic intake history. However, safety assessment systems for novel foods from other countries and food ingredients produced by the application of new technology need to be improved.

Dietary exposures for the safety assessment of seven emulsifiers commonly added to foods in the United States and implications for safety

ABSTRACTDietary exposure assessment using food-consumption data and ingredient-use level is essential for assessing the safety of food ingredients. Dietary exposure estimates are compared with safe intake levels, such as the acceptable daily intake (ADI). The ADI is estimated by applying a safety factor to an experimentally determined no-observed-adverse-effect level of a test substance. Two food ingredients classified as emulsifiers, carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and polysorbate 80 (P80), received attention recently due to their putative adverse effects on gut microbiota. Because no published dietary exposure estimates for commonly used emulsifiers exist for the US population, the current investigation focused on the estimation of dietary exposure to seven emulsifiers: CMC, P80, lecithin, mono- and diglycerides (MDGs), stearoyl lactylates, sucrose esters, and polyglycerol polyricinoleate. Using maximum-use levels obtained from publicly available sources, dietary exposures to these emulsifiers were estimated for the US population (aged 2 years and older) for two time periods (1999–2002 and 2003–10) using 1- and 2-day food-consumption data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and 10–14-day food-consumption data from NPD Group, Inc.’s National Eating Trends – Nutrient Intake Database. Our analyses indicated that among the emulsifiers assessed, lecithin and MDGs have the highest mean exposures at about 60 and about 80 mg kg–1 bw day–1, respectively, whereas the exposure to CMC is half to one-third that of lecithin or MDGs; and the exposure to P80 is approximately half that of CMC. The review of available safety information such as ADIs established by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), in light of our updated dietary exposure estimates for these seven emulsifiers, did not raise safety concerns at the current specified levels of use. Additionally, by examining two time periods (1999–2002, 2003–10), it was concluded that there is no evidence that exposure levels to emulsifiers have substantially increased.

Advances in assessing ingredient safety

The safety of food ingredients will be assessed in the 21st century by mixture of traditional methods, such as the “safe” dose concept, which is thought to be an accurate but imprecise estimation of dose below the population threshold for adverse effect, and contemporary methods, such as the Benchmark Dose (BMD), Chemical Specific Adjustment Factors (CSAF), physiologically-based pharmacokinetic models, and biologically-informed dose response modeling. New research on the horizon related to toxicology 21 may also improve these risk assessment methods, or suggest new ones. These traditional, contemporary and new methods and research will be briefly described.

성별에 따른 대학생들의 친환경 식재료를 활용한 간편 가정식 구매의향 및 중요도-만족도 분석

The purpose of this study was to survey intention to purchase home meal replacement (HMR) made with eco-friendly food ingredients as well as need for development while analyzing importance and performance of HMR made with eco-friendly ingredients for its commercialization. From September 2014 to March 2015, questionnaires were filled out by respondents. Of the 422 questionnaires that were returned, 412 were used with 10 discarded as incomplete. Regarding reasons behind purchasing HMR, the highest percentages of both males and females answered ‘ready to eat’. Almost all respondents spent ‘less than 10,000 won’ each time they purchased HMR. Regarding place they bought HMR, a higher percentage of respondents answered ‘convenience store’ and ‘discount retail chain store’. In terms of improvements needed for HMR, the highest percentage of males answered ‘development of a variety of menus’ while the highest percentage of females answered ‘change in food ingredients’ at 37.7%. For development of HMR made with eco-friendly ingredients, most respondents replied that there is a need for development. Regarding intention for purchasing HMR made with eco-friendly ingredients, 66.7% of males and 73.5% of females answered they have intention to buy. Important performance analysis showed a need to improve performance of ‘safety of food ingredients’, which was located close to the second quadrant. To improve performance for ‘safety of food ingredients’, safety must be ensured through use of eco-friendly ingredients, and a systematic process for managing hazardous materials that could arise during the manufacturing process has to be developed.

Influence of Confidence on Local Foods on Consumer's Purchase Behaviors from Tasty Farm Eateries

This study conducted an exploratory factor analysis to examine how consumers’ confidence on the local foods used at tasty farm eateries influence their purchase behaviors. The four factors of perception of local foods used at tasty farm eateries and the factors of consumer confidence and purchase behaviors were extracted for a reliability analysis, correlation analysis of variables, and simple and multiple regression analysis. The following are the findings: first, among the four factors of perception of local foods used at tasty farm eateries, safety, sociality and product value had statistically significant influences on consumer confidence, whereas regional economic value did not. In other words, safety referring to the nutritional value and sanitary safety of food ingredients used for the native foods at the tasty farm eateries, product value referring to the characteristics differentiated from general Korean cuisine, and sociality referring to the various related experiences for the interests in farm culture and local food, leads to consumer confidence, whereas regional economic value referring to farm household income, local job creation, and development of farm tourism does not. Second, consumer confidence had a statistically significant positive impact on consumers’ purchase behaviors. Among the five principles of local foods, reliability is the most important factor. When consumers gain confidence on local food items and are satisfied with them, they make additional purchases and revisits. Therefore, confidence is a very important aspect for the loyalty and sustainability of business.

Insights and perspectives on emerging inputs to weight of evidence determinations for food safety: workshop proceedings.

This workshop aimed to elucidate the contribution of computational and emerging in vitro methods to the weight of evidence used by risk assessors in food safety assessments. The following issues were discussed: using in silico and high-throughput screening (HTS) data to confirm the safety of approved food ingredients, applying in silico and HTS data in the process of assessing the safety of a new food ingredient, and utilizing in silico and HTS data in communicating the safety of food ingredients while enhancing the public’s trust in the food supply. Perspectives on integrating computational modeling and HTS assays as well as recommendations for optimizing predictive methods for risk assessment were also provided. Given the need to act quickly or proceed cautiously as new data emerge, this workshop also focused on effectively identifying a path forward in communicating in silico and in vitro data.

The importance of GRAS to the functional food and nutraceutical industries

At a time when 150 million Americans spend over $20.5 billion on functional foods, nutraceuticals and dietary supplements, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is doing little to ensure that all the safe and efficacious products that could come to the market are allowed to do so. FDA has only responded slowly and reluctantly to Congressional action and to mandates from the Courts to implement the law. Additionally, FDA had set the bar too high for Health Claims and was forced by the Courts to implement a more reasonable standard, but the response, Qualified Health Claims, has failed to gain the confidence of the public because of the confusing wording of the claims demanded by FDA. Congressional efforts to assure consumer access to dietary supplements have been met with similar resistance from FDA. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) was the product of a compromise with a lower threshold for demonstration of safety (reasonable expectation of no harm) that would be met by consumer self-policing and assumption of some risk. FDA has thwarted this effort by raising the bar for New Dietary Ingredient Notifications (NDIN) to what appears to be the higher threshold for the safety of food ingredients (reasonable certainty of no harm)—FDA apparently sees these two safety thresholds as a distinction without a difference. As a result, increasing numbers of dietary supplement manufacturers, unwilling to gamble the future of their products to a system that provides little hope for the FDA's response of “no objection”, have committed the additional resources necessary to obtain Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) status for their supplements. The pressure on FDA and Congress for change is again building with increased dissatisfaction among consumers as the result of confusing labels. A second force for change will be a need to uncouple the FDA mandated substance–disease relationship and return to the substance–claim relationship to allow for progress in nutrigenomics and metabolomics, which will result in an increasing number of substance-biomarker claims.

Food safety assessment reflecting cultural changes, novel hazards, and human values

An analysis of the cultural values of modern society suggests the desire for an abundant nutritious food supply in all seasons, but at the same time causes increasing concern about the safety of food ingredients. The procedures that give benefits also raise questions of safety. The wide range of societal values cover a spectrum but can be ranked according to their importance. These values will exact a price in the form of some risk. It is possible to balance hazards against cultural values, and benefits are an integral part of the calculus of safety assessment. However, every effort should be made to match the highest benefit with the lowest risk and these considerations have a bearing upon regulatory agencies as they seek to arrive at food safety decisions. A consideration of cultural and human values shifts the regulator's focus from risk only to a quite different task of balancing risks vs benefits in deciding on substances in foods.

FOOD REGULATORY ACTIVITIES

Current regulatory activities at the Food and Drug Administration cluster about several main lines of thrust. (a) More informative labeling. Examples are nutrient labeling, ingredient labeling on standardized foods, percentage declaration of characterizing ingredients, and on new foods, the definition of generic names. (b) Increasing emphasis on effective cooperation between State and Federal authorities. (c) Increased emphasis on food plant inspection. (d) More emphasis on inspection of quality assurance instead of only production. This includes quality assurance procedures applied to plant sanitation. (e) Increased attention to environmental contaminants, such as toxic metals and industrial organic chemicals. (f) Review of the safety of food ingredients with initial emphasis on the GRAS list.