Hollow-Structured Microporous Organic Networks Adsorbents Enabled Specific and Sensitive Identification and Determination of Aflatoxins.

Aflatoxin (AFT) contamination, commonly in foods and grains with extremely low content while high toxicity, has caused serious economic and health problems worldwide. Now researchers are making an effort to develop nanomaterials with remarkable adsorption capacity for the identification, determination and regulation of AFT. Herein, we constructed a novel hollow-structured microporous organic networks (HMONs) material. On the basis of Fe3O4@MOF@MON, hydrofluoric acid (HF) was introduced to remove the transferable metal organic framework (MOF) to give hollow MON structures. Compared to the original Fe3O4@MOF@MON, HMON showed improved surface area and typical hollow cavities, thus increasing the adsorption capacity. More importantly, AFT is a hydrophobic substance, and our constructed HMON had a higher water contact angle, greatly enhancing the adsorption affinity. From that, the solid phase extraction (SPE-HPLC) method developed based on HMONs was applied to analyze four kinds of actual samples, with satisfied recoveries of 85-98%. This work provided a specific and sensitive method for the identification and determination of AFT in the food matrix and demonstrated the great potential of HMONs in the field of the identification and control of mycotoxins.

[Management of Food Hygiene and Safety by Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCAP)].

Advances in food production technology and newer distribution systems have made it easier to obtain fresh ingredients from both within and outside of Japan. Although convenient, mass distribution of food over wide areas involves the risk of expanding the health damage caused by foods. Comprehensive management from production to consumption, using systems, such as hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP), is required to ensure the safety of foods. Improved inspection methods are also required to detect the effects of environmental changes on food. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of "Methods of Analysis in Health Science 2020" for food hygiene and safety management.

Application of HACCP for development of quality risk management in a water purification system

Abstract The present work reports the implementation of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) methodology to analyze the water purification system of a pharmaceutical site, in order to assure the system quality and prevent failures. As a matter of fact, the use of HACCP for development and implementation of Quality Risk Management (QRM) is not usual in pharmaceutical plants and it is applied here to improve the performance of the water purification system of a polymerization pilot plant used to manufacture pharmaceutical grade polymer microparticles. Critical Control Points (CCP) were determined with the aid of a decision tree and questions were made to characterize whether identified hazards constitute actual CCPs and should be monitored. When deviations were detected, corrective actions were performed and action plans were used for following-up and implementation of corrective actions. Finally, microbiological and physicochemical parameters were analyzed and the obtained results were regarded as appropriate. Therefore, it is shown that HACCP constitutes an effective tool for identification of hazards, establishment of corrective actions and monitoring of the critical control points that impact the process and the quality of the final pharmaceutical product most significantly.

In vivo Toxicity Assessment of Refined Red Palm-pressed Mesocarp Olein in Sprague-Dawley Rats.

Refined red palm-pressed mesocarp olein (PPMO) is recovered from palm-pressed mesocarp fiber, which is a by-product from palm oil mill. Its utilization in food industry is extremely limited even though it contains various phytonutrients. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate its toxicity effects by using the male Sprague-Dawley rat model. The rats were administered with a single dose of 2 g/kg PPMO in an acute toxicity study while administered with 2, 1, or 0.5 g/kg PPMO daily for 28 days in a sub-chronic toxicity study. The mortality, oral LD50 value, clinical observation, body and organ weight, hematological and biochemical analyses, pathological and histopathological examinations were assessed. The overall outcomes indicated that PPMO is non-toxic up to 2 g/kg and considered safe to be used in food application, especially as functional food ingredient and supplement attributed to its phytonutrients. Besides, this study provides an insight in alternative utilization of the wastes from palm oil mill.

Validation and Application of a Low-Cost Sorting Device for Fumonisin Reduction in Maize.

Fumonisin mycotoxins are a persistent challenge to human and livestock health in tropical and sub-tropical maize cropping systems, and more efficient methods are needed to reduce their presence in food systems. We constructed a novel, low-cost device for sorting grain, the "DropSort", and tested its effectiveness on both plastic kernel models and fumonisin-contaminated maize. Sorting plastic kernels of known size and shape enabled us to optimize the sorting performance of the DropSort. The device sorted maize into three distinct fractions as measured by bulk density and 100-kernel weight. The level of fumonisin was lower in the heaviest fractions of maize compared to the unsorted samples. Based on correlations among fumonisin and bulk characteristics of each fraction, we found that light fraction 100-kernel weight could be an inexpensive proxy for unsorted fumonisin concentration. Single kernel analysis revealed significant relationships among kernel fumonisin content and physical characteristics that could prove useful for future sorting efforts. The availability of a low-cost device (materials~USD 300) that can be used to reduce fumonisin in maize could improve food safety in resource-limited contexts in which fumonisin contamination remains a pressing challenge.

Application of Whole-Genome Sequencing in the National Molecular Tracing Network for Foodborne Disease Surveillance in China.

National Molecular Tracing Network for Foodborne Disease Surveillance (TraNet) was launched in 2013, which is the only real-time whole-genome sequencing (WGS)-based subtyping network in China for effective foodborne disease surveillance. TraNet covers three levels of public health laboratories, national, provincial, and municipal. The TraNet national databases have a total of more than 54,000 entries representing seven common foodborne bacteria from humans, food, and environments. Raw sequence data are uploaded to TraNet by Data Delivery Center. Assembled sequence data, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) profiles, antibiotic resistance patterns, and epidemiological data are submitted to national pathogen-specific databases managed by China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment. PFGE patterns and WGS-based subtyping are compared for rapid differentiation of clusters of geographically diverse foodborne infections. WGS-based TraNet has played significant roles in improving foodborne disease surveillance in China for rapid outbreak investigation, source tracking, and cluster analysis of particular pathogens across the country.

Case analysis of kinetics investigations in toxicity studies of pesticides to identify the nonlinearity of internal exposure and the influences of nonlinearity on the toxicological interpretation of pesticide residue.

The nonlinearity of internal exposure to 8 pesticides was investigated in toxicity studies using kinetics to identify nonlinearity visually and to investigate the influence of nonlinearity on toxicological evaluation. Data were obtained from risk assessment reports published by the Food Safety Commission (FSCJ). Nonlinearity was defined using 2 indicators: the lowest visual inflection point (LVIP) and the second lowest visual inflection point (SVIP) of kinetics by drawing a linear distribution chart. The area under the curve and 24-h urine concentrations were stable parameters used to identify the LVIP/SVIP. The sampling timing affected the blood concentrations, and the LVIP/SVIP was detected for 6 pesticides using the parent compounds or their metabolites as analytes. The subproportional nonlinearity was significant for these pesticides. The LVIP/SVIP values were consistent in the same species up to a 1-year period, but the values showed species-specific differences in several compounds. In all compounds found to be nonlinear, apical outcomes were observed at the SVIP or above. The presence of nonlinearity was recognized by the FSCJ. The recognition influenced their judgment of no-observed-adverse-effect levels (NOAELs) for carcinogenicity or health-based guidance values, indicating the importance of appropriate kinetics to identify the nonlinearity for toxicological evaluation of pesticide residue.

High-Efficiency Machine Learning Method for Identifying Foodborne Disease Outbreaks and Confounding Factors.

The China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment (CFSA) uses the Foodborne Disease Monitoring and Reporting System (FDMRS) to monitor outbreaks of foodborne diseases across the country. However, there are problems of underreporting or erroneous reporting in FDMRS, which significantly increase the cost of related epidemic investigations. To solve this problem, we designed a model to identify suspected outbreaks from the data generated by the FDMRS of CFSA. In this study, machine learning models were used to fit the data. The recall rate and F1-score were used as evaluation metrics to compare the classification performance of each model. Feature importance and pathogenic factors were identified and analyzed using tree-based and gradient boosting models. Three real foodborne disease outbreaks were then used to evaluate the best performing model. Furthermore, the SHapley Additive exPlanation value was used to identify the effect of features. Among all machine learning classification models, the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) model achieved the best performance, with the highest recall rate and F1-score of 0.9699 and 0.9582, respectively. In terms of model validation, the model provides a correct judgment of real outbreaks. In the feature importance analysis with the XGBoost model, the health status of the other people with the same exposure has the highest weight, reaching 0.65. The machine learning model built in this study exhibits high accuracy in recognizing foodborne disease outbreaks, thus reducing the manual burden for medical staff. The model helped us identify the confounding factors of foodborne disease outbreaks. Attention should be paid not only to the health status of those with the same exposure but also to the similarity of the cases in time and space.

Shelf-life, quality, safety evaluations of blueberry fruits coated with chitosan nano-material films.

Chitosan coating (B/CH) in addition with nano-material films as silicon (B/CH/Nano-SiO2) and titanium (B/CH/Nano-TiO2) dioxides were developed and applied to detect potential changes on fresh blueberry fruits in commercial storage temperature. Physical, mechanical parameters (weight loss, decay rate, colour index and firmness), phytochemical contents (ascorbic acid, acidity, soluble solids concentration, titratable acidity, and repining index), phenolic enzymes (peroxidase and polyphenoloxidase), pigments (anthocyanin) and microbiological analysis (mesophilic aerobic, yeasts and molds populations) were detected every other day until the end of the experiment. Nano-coating based on (Nano-TiO2) established the most suitable values for weight loss (2.22%), titratable acidity (0.45% citric acid), and repining index. (B/CH/Nano-TiO2) reported a gradual increase in polyphenoloxidase and peroxidase enzyme activities (659.45 U/min g) and (20.39 U/min g), respectively. While, (B/CH/Nano-SiO2) established the slightest change in acidity (2.61), anthocyanin (105.19 cyanidin-3-O-glucoside mg/100 g FW) and minimized the growth of mesophilic aerobic, yeasts, and molds populations (3.73-3.98 log CFU/g), respectively. (B/CH) films maintained lightness (6.80% loss) and recorded the highest ascorbic acid content (7.34 g/100 g FW). Therefore, chitosan nano-material films can maintain nutrients and control the microbial growth for extending the shelf life of fresh blueberry fruits.

Understanding fish production and marketing systems in North-western Nigeria and identification of potential food safety risks using value chain framework.

Fish production systems in North-western Nigeria have a significant role in food, nutrition and income generations to families, yet an important setup for zoonotic disease transmission. The aim of this study was to provide a broad knowledge of the structure, activities and food safety risks of the fish value chains operating in North-western Nigeria using the value chain framework. A total of 16 focus groups and 8 key informant interviews were conducted to gather data from fish producers, fish sellers and fish processors in selected peri-urban and rural settlements in Kaduna State. In addition, 129 semi-structured questionnaires and observation checklists were used in this study to gather evidence-based data, such as demography of value chain actors, product characterization, and food safety risks. The fish value-chain in North-western Nigeria is characterised by four main stakeholders, namely, fish producers, transporters, as well as raw- and processed-fish-sellers (wholesalers, retailers). Two major sources were identified supplying farmed fish to North-western Nigeria: the distributors from the central and southern part of the country and the fish farmers within the North-western and North-eastern regions of Nigeria. Raw-fish-wholesalers within the two major markets sold most of their high-value products to raw-fish-retailers, while low-value products were routed to raw-fish-retailers in the rural communities, processed-fish-retailers and household consumers in rural settlements. There were no large companies operating and no differentiation of chains between aquaculture and wild fishery. Raw fishes not sold and began to rot were sold to street vendors at a cheaper price and household consumers. Fish production and supply chains were characterised by poor structural and sanitary support for food safety and hygiene measures. Food safety risks identified were related to lack of biosecurity measures in fish farms, lack of cold chain and access to running water, poor hygiene practices by all handlers, lack of fish inspection at all levels, lack of use of protective clothing and limited health inspection of handlers. In overall, government control of activities in fish value chains was relatively poor leading to the absence of food safety regulatory enforcement characterised by lack of institutional goals on improving food safety measures in a chain-wide distribution. Hence, this study points the significant structural, sanitary and hygiene limitations along the fish value chain components. It provides a baseline for microbial food safety risk assessments, and information required for policy-making regarding implementation of disease control programmes, as the sector is fast-evolving in Sub-Saharan Africa.

A microbial challenge study for validating continuous radio-frequency assisted thermal processing pasteurization of egg white powder.

Spray dried egg white powder (EWP) is traditionally processed by hot room treatment for a prolonged period of time (67 °C for 15 days) to enhance its functionality (foaming and gelling) and to improve microbial safety of EWP. Our prior research demonstrated that radio-frequency (RF) assisted thermal processing can considerably reduce the processing time, without compromising the functional properties of EWP. In this study, continuous RF processing was evaluated for pasteurization of EWP. EWP samples were inoculated with a 5-strain Salmonella cocktail or Enterococcus faecium NRRL B-2354 for the microbial challenge studies. To evaluate the inoculation method, stability and homogeneity tests were conducted for both Salmonella and E. faecium in EWP. Continuous RF heating of EWP was conducted in a 6-kW, 27.12 MHz pilot-scale parallel-plate RF heating system. RF-assisted thermal processing of EWP at 80 °C for 2 h provided >6.69 log reduction for Salmonella. E. faecium was found to be a suitable surrogate for Salmonella due to its higher resistance and similar inactivation kinetics during RF heating of EWP. The validated RF-assisted thermal process can be scaled up for use in the egg industry.

Toxicological safety evaluation of the human-identical milk oligosaccharide 6'-sialyllactose sodium salt.

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) are abundant in breastmilk, but their presence in infant formula is negligible. Sialylated HMOs, such as 6'-sialyllactose, constitute a significant portion of the HMO fraction of human milk and are linked to important biological functions. To produce infant formula that is more comparable with human milk, biosynthesized sialyllactoses known as human-identical milk oligosaccharides (structurally identical counterparts to their respective naturally occurring HMOs in breastmilk) are proposed for use in infant formula and other functional foods for the general population. To support the safety of 6'-sialyllactose sodium salt (6'-SL), a 90-day oral (gavage) toxicity study and in vitro genotoxicity tests were conducted. The 90-day study is the first to be conducted with 6'-SL using neonatal rats (day 7 of age at the start of dosing), thus addressing safety of 6'-SL for consumption by the most sensitive age group (infants). In the 90-day study, neonatal rats received 6'-SL at doses up to 5000 mg/kg body weight (BW)/day and reference controls received 5000 mg/kg BW/day of fructooligosaccharide (an ingredient approved for use in infant formula) for comparison with the high-dose 6'-SL group, followed by a 4-week recovery period. There was no evidence of genotoxicity in vitro. No test item-related adverse effects were observed on any parameter in the 90-day study, thus the high dose (5000 mg/kg BW/day) was established as the no-observed-adverse-effect level. These results confirm that 6'-SL is safe for use in formula milk for infants and in other functional foods for the general population.

Toxicological safety assessment of the human-identical milk oligosaccharide 3'-sialyllactose sodium salt.

Human breastmilk is a mixture of nutrients, hormones and bioactive molecules that are vital for infant growth and development. Infant formula (IF) lacks many of these compounds, most notably human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), which are abundant in breastmilk but scarce in IF. Sialyllactoses, such as 3'-sialyllactose, constitute a large portion of the HMO fraction. To produce IF that matches breastmilk more closely, biosynthesized human-identical milk oligosaccharides (structurally identical to HMOs) such as 3'-sialyllactose sodium salt (3'-SL) are proposed for use in IF and foods for the general population. The safety assessment of 3'-SL comprised in vitro genotoxicity tests and a 90-day oral (gavage) toxicity study. This is the first 90-day study conducted with 3'-SL using neonatal rats (7 days old at the start of dosing-equivalent age to newborn human infants in terms of central nervous system and reproductive development), demonstrating the safety of 3'-SL for consumption by infants, the most sensitive age group. The neonatal rats received 3'-SL at doses up to 5,000 mg/kg body weight (BW)/day and reference controls received 5,000 mg/kg BW/day of fructooligosaccharide (an ingredient approved for use in IF) for comparison with the high-dose 3'-SL group, followed by a 4-week recovery period. There was no evidence of genotoxicity in vitro. In the absence of any test item-related adverse effects in the 90-day study, the high dose (5,000 mg/kg BW/day) was established as the no-observed-adverse-effect level. This confirms the safety of 3'-SL for use in IF for infants, as well as in functional foods for the general population.

[Adaptation of the HACCP method to the prevention of risks in radiotherapy]. / Adaptation de la méthode HACCP à la prévention des risques en radiothérapie.

HACCP method is used for quality insurance in the food industry for many years. It was adapted to radiotherapy to evaluate risk in the treatment process. This pragmatic approach led to the clear identification of different hazards along the process. It also allowed implementation of appropriate measures in order to reduce them.

Oriented assembly of surface plasmon resonance biosensor through staphylococcal protein A for the chlorpyrifos detection.

In this study, we report a direct surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor based on an oriented assembly of antibody for the rapid detection of chlorpyrifos residue in agricultural samples. In this covalent-orientated strategy, staphylococcal protein A (SPA) was first covalently bound to the surface for monitoring chlorpyrifos residue, with subsequent binding of the antibody in an orientated fashion via its fragment crystallizable (Fc) region. Consequently, the SPA-modified biosensor exhibited a satisfactory specificity and a low detection limit of 0.056 ng mL-1 for chlorpyrifos, with a linear detection range of 0.25-50.0 ng mL-1. Under optimal conditions, the sensor chip could be regenerated for at least 210 cycles. The results presented here indicate that the SPA-modified sensor chip can successfully improve the sensitivity and obviating the need of the modification of the antibody. The developed SPR biosensor method has the great potential for rapid, sensitive, and specific detection with broad applications in areas of environmental monitoring and food safety. Graphical abstract.

Inkjet Printed Nanopatterned Aptamer-Based Sensors for Improved Optical Detection of Foodborne Pathogens.

The increasing incidence of infectious outbreaks from contaminated food and water supply continues imposing a global burden for food safety, creating a market demand for on-site, disposable, easy-to-use, and cost-efficient devices. Despite of the rapid growth of biosensors field and the generation of breakthrough technologies, more than 80% of the platforms developed at lab-scale never will get to meet the market. This work aims to provide a cost-efficient, reliable, and repeatable approach for the detection of foodborne pathogens in real samples. For the first time an optimized inkjet printing platform is proposed taking advantage of a carefully controlled nanopatterning of novel carboxyl-functionalized aptameric ink on a nitrocellulose substrate for the highly efficient detection of E. coli O157:H7 (25 colony forming units (CFU) mL-1 in pure culture and 233 CFU mL-1 in ground beef) demonstrating the ability to control the variation within ±1 SD for at least 75% of the data collected even at very low concentrations. From the best of the knowledge this work reports the lowest limit of detection of the state of the art for paper-based optical detection of E. coli O157:H7, with enough evidence (p > 0.05) to prove its high specificity at genus, species, strain, and serotype level.

Are food exposures obtained through commercial market panels representative of the general population? Implications for outbreak investigations.

Current methods of control recruitment for case-control studies can be slow (a particular issue for outbreak investigations), resource-intensive and subject to a range of biases. Commercial market panels are a potential source of rapidly recruited controls. Our study evaluated food exposure data from these panel controls, compared with an established reference dataset. Market panel data were collected from two companies using retrospective internet-based surveys; these were compared with reference data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS). We used logistic regression to calculate adjusted odds ratios to compare exposure to each of the 71 food items between the market panel and NDNS participants. We compared 2103 panel controls with 2696 reference participants. Adjusted for socio-demographic factors, exposure to 90% of foods was statistically different between both panels and the reference data. However, these differences were likely to be of limited practical importance for 89% of Panel A foods and 79% of Panel B foods. Market panel food exposures were comparable with reference data for common food exposures but more likely to be different for uncommon exposures. This approach should be considered for outbreak investigation, in conjunction with other considerations such as population at risk, timeliness of response and study resources.

Optimizing the Use of Zebrafish Feeding Trials for the Safety Evaluation of Genetically Modified Crops.

In Europe, the toxicological safety of genetically modified (GM) crops is routinely evaluated using rodent feeding trials, originally designed for testing oral toxicity of chemical compounds. We aimed to develop and optimize methods for advancing the use of zebrafish feeding trials for the safety evaluation of GM crops, using maize as a case study. In a first step, we evaluated the effect of different maize substitution levels. Our results demonstrate the need for preliminary testing to assess potential feed component-related effects on the overall nutritional balance. Next, since a potential effect of a GM crop should ideally be interpreted relative to the natural response variation (i.e., the range of biological values that is considered normal for a particular endpoint) in order to assess the toxicological relevance, we established natural response variation datasets for various zebrafish endpoints. We applied equivalence testing to calculate threshold equivalence limits (ELs) based on the natural response variation as a method for quantifying the range within which a GM crop and its control are considered equivalent. Finally, our results illustrate that the use of commercial control diets (CCDs) and null segregant (NS) controls (helpful for assessing potential effects of the transformation process) would be valuable additions to GM safety assessment strategies.

Evaluation of new approaches to the access of official monitoring results for live bivalves molluscs.

BACKGROUND: Live bivalve molluscs, echinoderms, tunicates and marine gastropod are referred in EU food laws, and require member states to implement official controls in classified production areas, with the monitoring and classification of those areas. If, due to contaminant tests results, a production area is closed, any product from there is prohibited to be commercialized. Mobile applications optical character recognition (OCR) functionalities could ease the access to contaminant levels and production area classifications. This study verifies what information is available in live bivalves' labels, describes an OCR algorithm for those labels and evaluates it. METHODS: 86 labels were selected from four sale points in Lisbon, and photographed using smartphones. Each label was evaluated by a human to determine what data was available (either required or not). An OCR algorithm was developed and applied on the collected labels and validated against the data extracted by the human analysis. RESULTS: The analysis shows that all the labels included the required information, and 63% of the labels included the identifier for the production zone. The label-reading algorithm performs with an accuracy of 79.85% for the individual values. CONCLUSION: High accuracy of the developed label-reading algorithm shows potential for providing instant automatic access to the date and production area, but is affected by the variability on the label structure. Although not required by food laws, the majority of the sampled labels included complementary information (classified production area) that will allow access to more precise information about the existing biotoxin tests and analysis results.

Emerging Point-of-care Technologies for Food Safety Analysis.

Food safety issues have recently attracted public concern. The deleterious effects of compromised food safety on health have rendered food safety analysis an approach of paramount importance. While conventional techniques such as high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry have traditionally been utilized for the detection of food contaminants, they are relatively expensive, time-consuming and labor intensive, impeding their use for point-of-care (POC) applications. In addition, accessibility of these tests is limited in developing countries where food-related illnesses are prevalent. There is, therefore, an urgent need to develop simple and robust diagnostic POC devices. POC devices, including paper- and chip-based devices, are typically rapid, cost-effective and user-friendly, offering a tremendous potential for rapid food safety analysis at POC settings. Herein, we discuss the most recent advances in the development of emerging POC devices for food safety analysis. We first provide an overview of common food safety issues and the existing techniques for detecting food contaminants such as foodborne pathogens, chemicals, allergens, and toxins. The importance of rapid food safety analysis along with the beneficial use of miniaturized POC devices are subsequently reviewed. Finally, the existing challenges and future perspectives of developing the miniaturized POC devices for food safety monitoring are briefly discussed.