Consumption of preserved egg, a high-lead-containing food, is strongly associated with depressive symptoms in Chinese adults.

Previous studies have demonstrated adverse mental health effects of Pb exposure. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between consumption of preserved egg (PE), a high-Pb-containing food and depressive symptoms among adults in China. A sample of 25 213 adults (mean age 41·4 (sd 11·8) years; males, 53·9 %) in Tianjin, China, was studied in a cross-sectional analysis. Dietary intake including PE was assessed using a valid self-administered FFQ. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS). The association was estimated by OR using logistic regression models adjusted for multiple confounders. The prevalence of elevated depressive symptoms was 6·6 % (SDS≥50). Compared with the least frequent PE consumption (

A Non-Destructive Detection and Grading Method of the Internal Quality of Preserved Eggs Based on an Improved ConvNext.

As a traditional delicacy in China, preserved eggs inevitably experience instances of substandard quality during the production process. Chinese preserved egg production facilities can only rely on experienced workers to select the preserved eggs. However, the manual selection of preserved eggs presents challenges such as a low efficiency, subjective judgments, high costs, and hindered industrial production processes. In response to these challenges, this study procured the transmitted imagery of preserved eggs and refined the ConvNeXt network across four pivotal dimensions: the dimensionality reduction of model feature maps, the integration of multi-scale feature fusion (MSFF), the incorporation of a global attention mechanism (GAM) module, and the amalgamation of the cross-entropy loss function with focal loss. The resultant refined model, ConvNeXt_PEgg, attained proficiency in classifying and grading preserved eggs. Notably, the improved model achieved a classification accuracy of 92.6% across the five categories of preserved eggs, with a grading accuracy of 95.9% spanning three levels. Moreover, in contrast to its predecessor, the refined model witnessed a 24.5% reduction in the parameter volume, alongside a 3.2 percentage point augmentation in the classification accuracy and a 2.8 percentage point boost in the grading accuracy. Through meticulous comparative analysis, each enhancement exhibited varying degrees of performance elevation. Evidently, the refined model outshone a plethora of classical models, underscoring its efficacy in discerning the internal quality of preserved eggs. With its potential for real-world implementation, this technology portends to heighten the economic viability of manufacturing facilities.

Effect of preserved eggs on the health of SD rats, and anti-tumor action of HT-29 cells.

Preserved eggs are traditional alkali-pickled food in China and have been enjoyed by consumers and extensively studied by researchers for their nutritional tastes and their anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, lipid-lowering, and blood pressure-lowering properties. To study the anti-tumor effects of preserved eggs, this project observed the health on rats, and anti-tumor effects and separated anti-tumor active components on HT-29 cells. SD rats fed for 80 days showed that preserved eggs had no significant effect on weight, food intake, blood pH, liver tissues, or organ indices. Preserved eggs significantly increased blood levels of oxidative stress markers SOD and CAT, decreased MDA levels by 0.46, 0.23, and 0.25 times. Moreover, they also increased the level of IL-2 from 1233 to 1340 pg/mL. Two water-soluble bioactive peptide fractions, B1 and B2, with molecular weights ≥10 kDa were further obtained from preserved eggs by ultrafiltration and Superdex Peptide 10/300 GL. The potential mechanism of B1 and B2 is to activate the internal mitochondrial apoptotic pathway and induce apoptosis by up-regulating the expression of the pro-apoptotic factors cytochrome C, caspase-3, and caspase-9 mRNA in HT-29 cells.

Characterization of the Dynamic Gastrointestinal Digests of the Preserved Eggs and Their Effect and Mechanism on HepG2 Cells.

Preserved eggs, an alkaline-fermented food, have been widely searched for their anti-inflammatory activity. Their digestive characteristics in the human gastrointestinal tract and anti-cancer mechanism have not been well explained. In this study, we investigated the digestive characteristics and anti-tumor mechanisms of preserved eggs using an in vitro dynamic human gastrointestinal-IV (DHGI-IV) model. During digestion, the sample pH dynamically changed from 7.01 to 8.39. The samples were largely emptied in the stomach with a lag time of 45 min after 2 h. Protein and fat were significantly hydrolyzed with 90% and 87% digestibility, respectively. Moreover, preserved eggs digests (PED) significantly increased the free radical scavenging activity of ABTS, DPPH, FRAP and hydroxyl groups by 15, 14, 10 and 8 times more than the control group, respectively. PED significantly inhibited the growth, cloning and migration of HepG2 cells at concentrations of 250-1000 µg/mL. Meanwhile, it induced apoptosis by up/down-regulating the expression of the pro-apoptotic factor Bak and the anti-apoptotic gene Bcl-2 in the mitochondrial pathway. PED (1000 µg/mL) treatment resulted in 55% higher ROS production than the control, which also led to apoptosis. Furthermore, PED down-regulated the expression of the pro-angiogenic genes HIF-1α and VEGF. These findings provided a reliable scientific reference for the study of the anti-tumor activity of preserved eggs.

The role of metal compounds in dynamically regulating alkali infiltration during pickling of preserved eggs.

This study was conducted to investigate the dynamic regulation of alkali infiltration by different metal compounds during the pickling of preserved eggs. With the increased pickling time, the alkalinity of the pickling solution decreased, while the pH of preserved egg white increased firstly, then decreased, and finally increased again. The metal ions corresponding to the added metal compounds (CuSO4, CuSO4/ZnSO4 and PbO) underwent a complex migration with pickling time, and their content gradually increased in eggshell and yolk, but showed complex changes in egg white. The addition of metal compounds could produce a plugging effect. The main components of the black spots on eggshells of preserved eggs pickled by CuSO4, CuSO4/ZnSO4, and PbO were Cu2S, Cu2S/ZnS and PbS, respectively. In short, different metal compounds were combined with H2S to form insoluble compounds to block eggshell stomata, mesh pores and corrosion pores, thereby dynamically regulating the penetration of alkali.

Flame atomic absorption spectrometry combined with surface-modified magnetic mesoporous silica microspheres by polyethyleneimine for enrichment, isolation and determination of Cu2+ in preserved eggs after high-temperature digestion.

A new efficient magnetic solid-phase extractant based on a surface-modified magnetic mesoporous silica microsphere referred as MMSM-PEI was synthesised and used for the enrichment and isolation of copper ions (Cu2+) in preserved eggs. The physicochemical properties and morphology of MMSM-PEI were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), vibration sample magnetometry (VSM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and thermos-gravimetric analyses (TGA). The concentrations of trace Cu2+ in the preserved egg were determined by flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS). The effects of important parameters were examined. The most suitable pH values and temperature for adsorbing Cu2+ were 6.5 and 25 °C, respectively. According to the determination of Cu2+ in egg white, egg yolk and the outer coating mixture (TOCM) of preserved eggs, the spiked recovery and RSD were 94.1-103.8% and 0.96-4.35%, respectively. The limit of detection (LOD) and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) were 0.14 mg/kg and 0.46 mg/kg, respectively. The developed method improved the sensitivity and accuracy of FAAS for the determination of Cu2+ and it could be applied to the determination of trace Cu2+ in real samples.

Application of volatile and spectral profiling together with multimode data fusion strategy for the discrimination of preserved eggs.

The maturity level of eggs during pickling is conventionally assessed by choosing few eggs from each curing batch to crack open. Yet, this method is destructive, creates waste and has consequences for financial losses. In this work, the feasibility of integrating electronic nose (EN) with reflectance hyperspectral (RH) and transmittance hyperspectral (TH) data for accurate classification of preserved eggs (PEs) at different maturation periods was investigated. Classifier models based solely on RH and TH with EN achieved a training accuracy (93.33%, 97.78%) and prediction accuracy (88.89%; 93.33%) respectively. The fusion of the three datasets, (EN + RH + TH) as a single classifier model yielded an overall training accuracy of 98.89% and prediction accuracy of 95.56%. Also, 52 volatile compounds were obtained from the PE headspace, of which 32 belonged to seven functional groups. This study demonstrates the ability to integrate EN with RH and TH data to effectively identify PEs during processing.