Identification of mutagens in Japanese pickles.

A total of 108 samples of pickles, which were produced in districts with high and low incidences of stomach cancer in Japan, were extracted with methanol-chloroform. The extracts were bioassayed with Salmonella tester strains. The pickles produced in the high-cancer-incidence district were more mutagenic than those produced in the low-incidence district. The most mutagenic sample among 24 pickle specimens collected in the high-incidence district induced 130 revertants/mg of the crude extract for strain TA98. The mutagenic compounds were purified, and 2 flavonols, quercetin and rhamnetin, were identified as the major mutagens in the pickles by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The quantities of the 2 compounds were determined as 6.60 mg for quercetin, and 1.96 mg for rhamnetin per gram of the crude extract. The mutagenic activities of the pickles produced in the 2 districts were closely related to the amounts of quercetin in them.

Metabolic transit and toxicity of Maillard reaction products.

The feeding of Maillard reaction products (MRP) has been reported to lead to a variety of effects on metabolism which may be classed as "anti-nutritional" or "anti-physiological", depending on whether they are due to the loss of essential nutrients or to the presence of the MRP per se. This paper describes the sensitivity of essential nutrients in the "early" and "advanced" stages of the Maillard reaction, the metabolic transit of Amadori compounds, premelanoidins, melanoidins, hydroxymethyl-furfural, carboxymethyl-lysine, as well as the effects of MRP on pancreatic amylase and on urinary zinc excretion.

[Risk analysis of fuzzy states in data of case-control study for stomach cancer in Heilongjiang Province].

Data of case-control study of 241 cases of stomach cancer were analyzed by method of risk analysis of fuzzy states. The findings showed that alcohol consumption, smoking, chronic gastritis, insufficient vegetable intake, and frequent hard or salted food eating were the risk factors of stomach cancer in Heilongjiang area. It indicated that multiplicative effect existed in chronic gastritis with alcohol drinking or alcohol drinking with salted vegetable intake with OR of 5.53 and 1.80, respectively.

[Multiple stepwise regression analysis of etiological factors of esophageal cancer in Cixian county].

Cixian county, one of the high-risk counties of esophageal cancer in the world, has a standardized mortality of 142.19/10(5) population, 1969-1971. The incidence of esophageal cancer had dropped year by year from 1974 to 1982. The significance of the incidence tendency was studied. The results are highly significant (P less than 0.001). The causative factors of esophageal cancer including five independent variables: X1 (number of people taking sanitized water), X2 (number of people on pickled Chinese cabbage), X3 (annual output of fruit), X4 (annual output of fresh vegetable) and X5 (annual output of sweet potato) and one dependent variable Y (morbidity of esophageal cancer) were studied by correlative analysis and multiple stepwise regression. Three correlative factors (X1, X2, and X5) with significant effect on the esophageal cancer were selected from the five suspected factors. The result indicated that taking sanitized water, reducing the number of people on pickled Chinese cabbage, changing the structure of food and keeping the nutrient balance, might decrease the incidence of esophageal cancer.

An outbreak of type A foodborne botulism in Taiwan due to commercially preserved peanuts.

Until recently, botulism was not recognized as an important public health problem in Taiwan. In 1986, an outbreak of type A foodborne botulism resulted in nine cases, two of them fatal. The vehicle in this outbreak was commercially preserved peanuts processed by an improperly equipped, unlicensed cannery. A single batch of peanuts was implicated; however, we could not determine why this particular batch was contaminated. Efforts to recall the product were hampered by a lack of distribution records. Mass media announcements were used to warn the public about the outbreak, and preliminary data suggest the ensuing publicity improved botulism surveillance. The local preference for low-acid preserved foods, increasing consumerism, the shortage of adequately trained inspectors are factors which probably contributed to this outbreak. Stricter enforcement of food sanitation policies are needed to meet the changing situation in Taiwan.

Sensitivity to sulfited foods among sulfite-sensitive subjects with asthma.

Eight individuals with asthma who had been diagnosed as sulfite sensitive on the basis of double-blind capsule-beverage challenges were subjected to challenges with various sulfited foods, including lettuce, shrimp, dried apricots, white grape juice, dehydrated potatoes (as mashed potatoes), and mushrooms. Four of these patients failed to respond to challenges with any of the sulfited foods. The other four patients experienced a decrease in pulmonary function on double-blind challenges with sulfited lettuce. Two of three of these patients reacted to challenges with dried apricots and white grape juice; the fourth patient has not yet been challenged with these products. Only one of these four patients reacted to challenges with dehydrated potatoes and mushrooms, and, in this case, the response to double-blind challenges with dehydrated potatoes was not consistent. None of the sulfite-sensitive subjects with asthma responded to challenges with sulfited shrimp. It is concluded that sulfite-sensitive subjects with asthma will not necessarily react after ingestion of sulfited foods. The likelihood of a reaction is dependent on the nature of the food, the level of residual sulfite, the sensitivity of the patient, and perhaps on the form of residual sulfite and the mechanism of the sulfite-induced reaction.

Anisakiasis caused by herring in vinegar: a little known medical problem.

Six cases of intestinal anisakiasis, or herring worm disease, diagnosed over a two year period in a Belgian gastroenterology unit are described. They presented mainly as intestinal obstructions and larvae of this marine nematode were found in the intestinal wall of two of the four patients who were operated on. In two other patients awareness of the diagnosis permitted conservative treatment and spontaneous healing. In five patients symptoms developed after they had eaten herring marinated in vinegar, a hitherto little known source of the herring worm disease.

[Thermophilic aerobic and facultatively anaerobic bacteria as causative agents of acidification of crab preserves]. / Termofil'nye aérobnye i fakul'tativno-anaérobnye bakterii-vozbuditeli ploskogo skisaniia krabovykh konservov.

The authors studied the influence of regimen of canned crab sterilization on the viability of thermophilic aerobic and facultatively anaerobic bacteria in the product. It has been established that sterilization of canned crabs reduces contamination of the product with thermostable bacteria, although it does not ensure their complete death. During storage at a temperature of 8-10 degrees C thermophilic bacteria lose their capacity for acidification. The product can turn sour in the presence of these bacteria among the residual flora only during storage at higher temperatures.

Preserved foods and nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a case-control study in Guangxi, China.

One hundred twenty-eight mothers of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) cases under age 45 in Yulin Prefecture, China and 174 mothers of population controls were interviewed as part of an epidemiological study to examine childhood exposures in relation to the development of NPC. Exposure before age 2 years to a number of fermented foods was a risk factor for NPC. During weaning, intake of salted fish [relative risk (RR) = 2.6, one-sided P (P) = 0.01], salted duck eggs (RR = 5.0, P = 0.03), salted mustard green (RR = 5.4, P = 0.03), and chung choi (RR = 2.0), P = 0.003), a kind of salted root, was significantly related to an increased risk of NPC. Between ages 1 and 2 years, intake frequency of dried fish [P for linear trend test (linear trend P) = 0.002], fermented black bean paste (linear trend P = 0.0009), and fermented soy bean paste (linear trend P = 0.007) was also positively associated with NPC. A multivariate analysis of these different foods showed all except fermented black bean paste to be independently related to NPC.

A tuna fish diet influences cat behavior.

When observed in their home cages, cats fed commercial tuna fish cat food were less active, vocalized less, and spent more time on the floor and more time eating than cats fed commercial beef cat food. There were no differences in response to human handling between the two groups. There were no differences in learning ability on a two-choice point maze or in reversal learning in the same maze between beef- and tuna-fed cats. The behavior of the groups differed in a 15-min open field test only in the number of toys contacted. Cats fed the tuna had elevated tissue levels of mercury and selenium.

Outbreak of scombroid fish poisoning, Taiwan.

Fish implicated in outbreaks of scombroid poisoning have usually undergone prolonged storage at an inadequate temperature. We report an outbreak of scombroid poisoning in which fish stored on ice for two days caused illness after standing at room temperature for only three to four hours; fish from the same catch did not cause illness after standing at room temperature only one hour. This outbreak suggests scombrotoxins may be produced more rapidly than previously thought possible.

Agentes bacterianos causantes de toxo-infecciones de origem alimentario / Bacterial agents as cause of toxo-infections of food origin

Food are considered substances that contribute to maintain the functional equilibrium of living organisms. Many of these products are good substrates to support microbial growth. The normal state of human health will be negatively affected by foods highly contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms or their toxins. Diarrhea, fever and other symptoms may be produced by bacterial infections or bu some of their harmful toxins. Microbial foodborne illnesses are of importance in public health, specially in communities with defective nutrition and when a circle of infection-undernutrition-deficient inmunological response and again infection is established. Infections are diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria (Salmonella, Shigella and others), that entering the body through the mouth with the meals and may produce colonization or invasiveness at intestinal level, as well as tissue pertubations and diarrhea. Intoxications may be caused by preformed toxins in foods, being some of them thermolabile as that of Clostridium botulinum, or thermostable as those of Staphylococcus aureus. Some strains of Clostridium perfringes and Escherichia coli after passing the gastric barrier, are able to produced their respective toxins in the intestinal tract. The synthesis of bacterialtoxins may be coded by genes located in the chromosome or in extrachromosomal plasmids. By adjusting some physico-chemical parameters is posible to control microbial growth of the agents involved in food-borne illnesses. Among those related to intrinsic properties of good are: pH, water activity, potential redox, nutrients and biological structures. Others, depend on external conditions which may influence on their velocity of multiplication such: temperature, relative humidity and presence of gas. Also are of importance the interactions among mixed pipilations, that influence growth kinetics and determine the advantage of one specie over other...

Botulismo: consideraçöes acerca de oito casos ocorridos no Triângulo Mineiro, Minas Gerais / Botulism: considerations about 8 cases ocurred in Triângulo Mineiro, Minas Gerais, Brazil

O botulismo constitui uma forma rara de intoxicaçäo alimentar, particularmente em nosso meio. A única epidemia comprovada desta doença no Brasil ocorreu na década de 1950, no Rio Grande do Sul, onde nove pessoas a adquiriram, após a ingestäo de conserva caseira de peixe. O presente estudo relata um surto de Botulismo Tipo A ocorrido em uma família de 8 membros, dos quais 7 contraíram esta toxinfecçäo após a ingestäo de carne suína conservada sob a forma de enlatado caseiro. Duas evoluiram para o óbito, e os restantes recuperaram-se após variável tempo de evoluçäo. Onze meses após, diagnósticou-se novo caso desta doença, cuja fonte da intoxicaçäo näo pôde ser detectada. Pretende-se com esta publicaçäo, divulgar a segunda epidemia comprovada de Botulismo no Brasil, e chamar atençäo para seu quadro clínico, diagnóstico e tratamento, praticamente desconhecidos em nosso meio

[Carcinogenic and promoting effects of fish juice, preserved rice and salted dry fish on the forestomach epithelium of mice and esophageal epithelium of rats].

The carcinogenic and promoting effects of fish juice, preserved rice and salted dry fish from Nanau county, Guangdong province, a high incidence area of esophageal cancer, were studied in mice and rats. The homemade fish juice as well as fish juice in market, whether or not added with NaNO2, did not cause tumor in the forestomach of mice and the esophagus of rats. When the mice were intubated with an initiator, nitrososarcosinethylester (NSEE) twice, no carcinoma was found at the end of the experiment (D 120). Only papilloma appeared in the forestomach epithelium. The incidence was only 37.5%. However, when the mice were intubated with NSEE for 2 times followed by gastric doses of homemade fish juice, the tumor incidence in the forestomach was increased to 89.7%, in which 20.5% was carcinoma. The tumor and carcinoma incidences of initiator (NSEE and NMBzA) group and initiator + market fish juice group in mice and rats were without significant difference. The experimental results show that the homemade fish juice proved distinct promoting effect on the process of cocarcinogenesis initiated by NSEE in the forestomach of mice, while the market fish juice has no significant promoting effect on the forestomach epithelium of mice and the esophageal epithelium of rats. NSEE induced 31.6% carcinoma in the forestomach epithelium of mice on standard diet. While in mice fed with preserved rice and salted dry fish, the carcinoma incidence was increased to 63.6%. It appears that preserved rice and salted dry fish have promoting effect on the process of cocarcinogenesis initiated by NSEE in the forestomach of mice.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)