Toward commercial applications of LED and laser-induced fluorescence techniques for food identity, quality, and safety monitoring: A review.

The assessment of food safety and quality is a matter of paramount importance, especially considering the challenges posed by climate change. Convenient, eco-friendly, and non-destructive techniques have attracted extensive attention in the food industry because they can retain food safety and quality. Fluorescence radiation, the process by which fluorophore emits light upon the absorption of ultraviolet or visible light, offers the advantages of high sensitivity and selectivity. The use of excitation-emission matrix (EEM) has been extensively explored in the food industry, but on-site detection of EEMs remain a challenge. To address this limitation, laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) and light emitting diode-induced fluorescence (LED-IF) have been implemented in many cases to facilitate the transition of fluorescence measurements from the laboratory to commercial applications. This review provides an overview of the application of commercially available LIF/LED-IF devices for non-destructive food measurement and recent studies that focus on the development of LIF/LED-IF devices for commercial applications. These studies were categorized into two stages: the preliminary exploration stage, which emphasizes the selection of an appropriate excitation wavelength based on the combination of EEM and chemometrics, and the pre-application stage, where experiments were conducted on scouting with specific excitation wavelength. Although commercially available devices have emerged in many research fields, only a limited number have been reported for use in the food industry. Future studies should focus on enhancing the diversity of test samples and parameters that can be measured by a single device, exploring the application of LIF techniques for detecting low-concentration substances in food, investigating more quantitative approaches, and developing embedded computing devices.

Detection of nitrofurans residues in honey using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Residues of veterinary antibiotics in honey may be damaging to human health. Surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy (SERS) is an emerging technology widely applied in food safety. SERS has advantages of enabling fingerprint identification and fast detection, as well as does not require complex pretreatment. Considering the overuse of nitrofurans in honeybee breeding, SERS combined with spectral preprocessing was used to detect nitrofurantoin in honey. By using standardized experimental procedures and improved spectral correction methods, the lowest detection limit of nitrofurantoin was 0.1321 mg/kg. A good linear relationship in the partial least squares regression model was found among spiked samples, which allowed prediction of nitrofurantoin content in honey sample ( R C 2 $R_C^2$ = â€¯0.9744; R P 2 $R_P^2$ =  0.976; RMSECV = 1.0353 mg/kg; RMSEP  =  0.9987 mg/kg). Collectively, these results reliably demonstrated that quantification is more accurate when spectral preprocessing is better controlled. Therefore, this study indicates that SERS could be further implemented in fast and onsite detection of nitrofurantoin in honey for improved food safety. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This article presents a novel SERS-based method for the rapid detection of nitrofurantoin residues in honey. The original spectra were corrected by multiple linear regression based on the fitting baseline. This study aims to develop a rapid onsite detection method for toxic hazardous substance residues in food.

A feasibility quantitative analysis of free fatty acids in polished rice by fourier transform near-infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics.

Free fatty acids (FFAs) are an important indicator of the freshness and quality of rice. In this study, the vibration response of C-H chemical bonds (-CH3 , -CH2 , H-C = C-H) of FFAs in the near-infrared region was determined by analyzing the standard reagent. In addition, the spectral data of different physical forms of rice and chemometrics, such as partial least squares (PLS), synergy interval-PLS, and competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS), were applied to develop an optimal regression model for rice FFAs determination. The performance of the FFAs model established by using the polished rice granule spectrum (PRG) combined with CARS was the best, the correlation coefficients of the calibration set and prediction set were 0.99 (root mean squared errors of the calibration = 2.00 mg/100 g) and 0.98 (root mean squared errors of the prediction = 3.21 mg/100 g), respectively, and the ratio of performance-to-deviation was 4.50. Compared with the rice powder spectral, the PRG spectral can better retain the information of FFAs. The result shows that NIRS can rapidly, non-destructively, and accurately detect FFAs in rice granules, which will help rice business and food regulatory authorities to establish an early warning mechanism of rice aging. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Free fatty acids (FFAs) in rice are an important indicator for evaluating the freshness of rice, and their high responsiveness to the deterioration of rice quality. The real-time detection of FFAs in rice can timely adjust the parameters of the rice storage environment, which is very meaningful to ensure the quality of rice.

Effectiveness of Implementation of Electronic Malaria Information System as the National Malaria Surveillance System in Thailand.

BACKGROUND: In moving toward malaria elimination, one strategy is to implement an active surveillance system for effective case management. Thailand has developed and implemented the electronic Malaria Information System (eMIS) capturing individualized electronic records of suspected or confirmed malaria cases. OBJECTIVE: The main purpose of this study was to determine how well the eMIS improves the quality of Thailand's malaria surveillance system. In particular, the focus of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the eMIS in terms of the system users' perception and the system outcomes (ie, quality of data) regarding the management of malaria patients. METHODS: A mixed-methods technique was used with the framework based on system effectiveness attributes: data quality, timeliness, simplicity, acceptability, flexibility, stability, and usefulness. Three methods were utilized: data records review, survey of system users, and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders. From the two highest endemic provinces, paper forms matching electronic records of 4455 noninfected and 784 malaria-infected cases were reviewed. Web-based anonymous questionnaires were distributed to all 129 eMIS data entry staff throughout Thailand, and semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 management-level officers. RESULTS: The eMIS is well accepted by system users at both management and operational levels. The data quality has enabled malaria personnel to perform more effective prevention and control activities. There is evidence of practices resulting in inconsistencies and logical errors in data reporting. Critical data elements were mostly completed, except for a few related to certain dates and area classifications. Timeliness in reporting a case to the system was acceptable with a delay of 3-4 days. The evaluation of quantitative and qualitative data confirmed that the eMIS has high levels of simplicity, acceptability, stability, and flexibility. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the system implemented has achieved its objective. The results of the study suggested that the eMIS helps improve the quality of Thailand's malaria surveillance system. As the national malaria surveillance system, the eMIS's functionalities have provided the malaria staff working at the point of care with close-to-real-time case management data quality, covering case detection, case investigation, drug compliance, and follow-up visits. Such features has led to an improvement in the quality of the malaria control program; the government officials now have quicker access to both individual and aggregated data to promptly react to possible outbreak. The eMIS thus plays one of the key roles in moving toward the national goal of malaria elimination by the next decade.