Research Publications (Food Safety)

Author(s): Shu-Chuan Kuo, Yih-Ming Weng

Author(s): Jordana Alves Ferreira, Sonia C.N. Queiroz

Author(s): Mohit Bansal, Nitin Dhowlaghar, Ramakrishna Nannapaneni, Divya Kode, Sam Chang, Chander S. Sharma, Christopher McDaniel, Aaron Kiess

Author(s): Beatriz Ferrer, Lisa M. Prince, Alexey A. Tinkov, Abel Santamaria, Marcelo Farina, João Batista Rocha, Aaron B. Bowman, Michael Aschner

Author(s): Jeyakumar Balakrishnan, Prakash Ganapathi, Suganya Kannan, Murugan Marudhamuthu, Kathiresan Shanmugam

Author(s): Elżbieta Maćkiw, Dorota Korsak, Joanna Kowalska, Benjamin Felix, Monika Stasiak, Katarzyna Kucharek, Jacek Postupolski

Author(s): Fan Li, Qinghua Ye, Moutong Chen, Baoqing Zhou, Xinran Xiang, Chufang Wang, Yuting Shang, Jumei Zhang, Rui Pang, Juan Wang, Liang Xue, Shuzhen Cai, Yu Ding, Qingping Wu

Author(s): Guillaume Legrand Ngolong Ngea, Qiya Yang, William Tchabo, Raffaello Castoria, Xiaoyun Zhang, Hongyin Zhang

Author(s): Ann Abraham, Leanne J. Flewelling, Kathleen R. El Said, William Odom, Stephen P. Geiger, April A. Granholm, Jennifer T. Jackson, Dean Bodager

Coxiellosis or Q fever is an important global occupational zoonotic disease caused by one of the most contagious bacterial pathogens‐ Coxiella burnetii, which ranks one among the 13 global priority zoonoses. The detection of C. burnetii infection is exhibiting an increasing trend in high‐ risk personnel around the globe. It has increasingly been detected from foods of animal origin (including bulk milk, eggs, and meat) as well as tick vectors in many parts of the world.

Production and world consumption of spices are constantly increasing. Although the antimicrobial properties of some spices are well documented, their use in the agri‐food industry is also responsible for microbial contamination and spoilage. Bacterial spores introduced by spices can withstand different preparation processes, particularly thermal treatments, leading to food alterations during storage.

Furan, a significant food contaminant, was found in many cooked foods. In most cooked foods, furan has been found to be coexisted with some alkylated derivatives such as 2‐methylfuran. 2‐methylfuran was found to be potent hepatotoxins. Little toxicological data is available for 2‐methylfuran. The objective of this study was to investigate metabolite changes in the liver samples from mice fed with 2‐methylfuran by untargeted metabolomic approach.

Tomato is a climacteric fruit susceptible to rapid softening and ripening after harvest. In this study, the changes of physicochemical characters, cell wall degrading enzymes, cell wall compositions and ethylene production of ‘Hisar Arun’ and ‘BSS‐488’ tomato fruits were investigated under the influence of salicylic acid treatment. Salicylic acid treatment effectively delayed firmness decline and increase in PLW, TSS and lycopene content.

Gastrointestinal bacteria that harbor antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) become enriched with antibiotic use. Livestock manure application to cropland for soil fertility presents a concern that ARG and bacteria may proliferate and be transported in the environment. In the United States, manure applications typically occur during autumn with slow mineralization until spring planting season.

High concentrations of heavy metal (HM) ions impact agronomic staple crop production in acid soils (pH ≤ 5) due to their cytotoxic, genotoxic, and mutagenic effects. Among cytotoxic ions, the trivalent aluminum cation (Al3+) formed by solubilization of aluminum (Al) into acid soils, is one of the most abundant and toxic elements under acidic conditions.

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) is the causative agent of typhoid fever, a disease that kills an estimated 200,000 people annually. Previously, we discovered an antimicrobial pathway dependent on Rab32 and BLOC-3 (BRAM) that is critical to kill S. Typhi in murine macrophages. The BLOC-3 complex is comprised of the two sub-units HPS1 and HPS4 and exhibits guanine-nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) activity to Rab32.

Campylobacter jejuni is a zoonotic pathogen and is one of the leading causes of human gastroenteritis worldwide. C. jejuni IA3902 (representative of the sheep abortion clone) is genetically similar to C. jejuni W7 (representative of strain type NCTC 11168); however, there are significant differences in the ability of luxS mutants of these strains to colonize chickens. LuxS is essential for the activated methyl cycle and generates homocysteine for conversion to l-methionine.

A critical facet of mammalian innate immunity involves the hosts’ attempts to sequester and/or limit the availability of key metabolic products from pathogens. For example, nutritional immunity encompasses host approaches to limit the availability of key heavy metal ions such as zinc and iron. Previously, we identified several hundred genes in a multidrug-resistant isolate of Acinetobacter baumannii that are required for growth and/or survival in the Galleria mellonella infection model.

Human sapoviruses (HuSaVs) cause acute gastroenteritis similar to human noroviruses. Although HuSaVs were discovered four decades ago, no HuSaV has been grown in vitro, which has significantly impeded the understanding of viral biology and the development of antiviral strategies. In this study, we identified two susceptible human cell lines, that...

Author(s): Karen Jaqueline Haselroth, Poline Wilke, Ingrid Miotto Dalla Costa, Victor Manuel Lustoza Rotta, Adriana Fiorini Rosado, Eliane Hermes

Author(s): L.H.B. Hansen, B. Nielsen, E.J. Boll, L. Skjøt-Rasmussen, A. Wellejus, L. Jørgensen, C. Lauridsen, N. Canibe

Author(s): Selçuk Kılıç, Bekir Çelebi, Meral Turan

As part of the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS) activities, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) collected cecal samples from food animal slaughter facilities throughout the country between 2014 and 2018. Of the 26,780 cecal samples from cattle, swine, chicken and turkey , 6,350 (23.71%) tested positive for Salmonella .

Butter adulteration practices and their health risks were assessed along the supply chains in the central highlands and south-western midlands of Ethiopia. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 1101 respondents. Based on the result of the cross-sectional study, fatty acid profiles of butter samples collected from retailers’ shops were investigated to determine the extent of adulteration and understand the risks of food safety.

Vegetables in Cambodia are commonly sold in informal markets lacking food safety standards and controls. Currently, data on microbial contamination of vegetables in Cambodian informal markets are limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate Salmonella enterica and indicator organisms (generic Escherichia coli and coliforms) on the surface of fresh vegetables sold in informal markets in Cambodia.