Research Publications (Food Safety)

Abstract Romaine lettuce outer leaves, as opposed to the more commonly marketed heart, are typically discarded and present an opportunity for upcycling as dried powders. Duquesne Romaine lettuce was evaluated to quantify and compare quality attributes of fresh outer and heart leaves, dried powders following hot air drying, and dried powders following an infrared (IR) blanching pretreatment before drying.

Abstract During the early months of life, infant formula plays a crucial role as a primary source of both food and essential nutrients for infants, serving as a replacement for or supplement to breast milk. However, nonessential metals in infant formulas are a concern because infants are highly vulnerable to chemical exposure. The aim of this study was to investigate infant exposure to nonessential metals in infant formula products in Taiwan and assess the associated health risks.

Abstract Fluoroquinolones are commonly used in poultry breeding. Few studies have evaluated the causes of serious drug residues in black‐boned silky fowl until enrofloxacin has been banned in black‐boned silky fowl breeding in the Chinese Veterinary Commission of Chinese Veterinary Pharmacopoeia (2020). However, similarly structured fluoroquinolones have not been studied in black‐boned silky fowl.

Abstract In this study, two prediction models were developed using visible/near‐infrared (Vis/NIR) spectroscopy combined with partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS‐DA) and least squares support vector machine (LS‐SVM) for the detection of pesticide residues of avermectin, dichlorvos, and chlorothalonil at different concentration levels on the surface of cauliflowers.

Journal of Food Science, EarlyView. We investigated the occurrence of 80 pesticide residues in 96 honey samples from apiaries with honeybee poisoning incidences by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and subsequently conducted risk assessments of exposure for in-hive honeybees and Chinese consumers. Six pesticides were detected with residue concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 130.9 µg/kg.

Journal of Food Science, EarlyView. Cadmium (Cd) accumulation in rice protein has long been considered a significant threat to human health. In the present study, a costless and effective method based on gluconic acid (GA) rinsing of rice protein was developed to reduce Cd contamination in rice protein. Moreover, the effect of GA on the structural and functional properties of rice protein was evaluated.

Journal of Food Science, EarlyView. This study examined the effects of various treatments on removing pesticide residues and toxic elements in rice. In parallel, nutritional elements, magnesium (Mg), potassium (K), and phosphorous (P), were measured to investigate the effect of these washing treatments on the nutritional value of rice.

Journal of Food Science, EarlyView. Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) in various foods continuously concern the public. Pork and its byproducts, especially from Yorkshire pigs, are the largest meat food consumed by the general population in China. This study aims to investigate the distribution of PCDD/Fs in different tissues of Yorkshire pigs to understand their bioaccumulation. Yorkshire pigs were fed a known amount of PCDD/Fs through fly ash.

Journal of Food Science, EarlyView. Pesticide residues in radishes can induce serious health hazards, especially in children and toddlers. In order to assess potential health risk from pesticide residues in radishes, a total of 26 pesticides were evaluated by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry in 1690 samples, which were collected from the year 2016 to 2019 in Shandong Province of China.

Journal of Food Science, EarlyView. The bioaccessibility and bioavailability of different cadmium (Cd) levels (low: 7.31 mg/kg, medium: 24.20 mg/kg, high: 41.64 mg/kg) in Boletus griseus were evaluated by establishing a bionic digestive system in vitro. The results showed that the bioaccessibility of high Cd level by gastrointestinal digestion was significantly higher than other two levels.

Journal of Food Science, EarlyView. Rice is a recognized source of cadmium (Cd) exposure. In this study, a total of 102 rice samples were obtained from main producing rice regions of China, and the bioavailability of Cd in rice were assessed by using an in vitro digestion method combined with a Caco-2 cell monolayer model.

Journal of Food Science, EarlyView.

Journal of Food Science, EarlyView. Medicine food homologous (MFH) plants provide therapeutic and health care effects through diet. Thus, a risk assessment system for hazardous ingredient residues is urgently required to ensure their safe use.

Dietary intake of polychlorinated dioxins and furans (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) from various foods (fish and seafood, meat and meat-based products, milk and dairy products, hen eggs, olive oil and fats) was investigated for various sex/age groups of the Italian population. The concentrations of PCDD/Fs and dl-PCBs and their contribution to total TEQ values varied depending on food matrix.

Journal of Food Science, EarlyView. To evaluate the pollution level of toxic elements in edible mushrooms from Jilin Province, China, the lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic content present in them were monitored and evaluated. A total of 610 edible mushroom samples, including fresh and dried, were collected from nine cities in the Jilin Province.

Journal of Food Science, EarlyView. In this work, the occurrence of 34 common antibiotic (15 sulfonamides and 19 quinolones) residues were evaluated in 236 ready‐to‐eat duck eggs (salted and preserved duck eggs) marketed through e‐commerce stores by ultra‐performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry, and subsequent dietary risk assessments for Chinese consumers were conducted.

Journal of Food Science, EarlyView. Acrylamide (AA), which is a carcinogen in humans, has been a research focus in terms of food risk assessment. However, few published studies have explored protein strategies to reduce the health risks of AA. The objective of this study was to investigate the binding of AA with soy protein isolate (SPI) and elucidate the binding mechanism.

Seafood is capable of bioaccumulating heavy metals (HM), making it a potentially major dietary source of HM for humans. Presently, little data exists on seafood from the eastern‐most boundary of the Mediterranean Sea. This study aims to provide exposure insight of the Israeli population to HM through the consumption of locally caught seafood by assessing the levels of arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and lead in raw tissues of seafood.

In our study, a food safety management system was developed for a chaga mushroom biotechnology product manufacturer, with the purpose of meeting the quality demands of customers and enhancing the manufacturer's reputation.

Vacuum‐packed salmon was treated by electron beam irradiation preservation technology, to study the effects of electron‐beam irradiation on odor active compounds of salmon by two types of methods for extraction: headspace‐solid phase micro extraction (HS‐SPME) and solvent assisted flavor evaporation (SAFE).

In this work, levels of cyromazine and its metabolite melamine in chicken products and its transfer factors (TFs) and dietary risks assessment for Chinese consumers are presented. Cyromazine was added to chicken feed at doses of 5, 25, and 50 mg/kg for 42 days. Cyromazine residues were found in frequently consumed chicken products (meat, heart, liver, gizzard, and eggs), with liver and eggs displaying the highest concentrations (0.935 and 1.281 mg/kg, respectively).

Cadmium (Cd) contamination in rice grain is common worldwide. This study investigated the effect of degree of milling (DM) on the reduction of Cd in cooked rice grain and porridge (rice‐to‐water ratios 1:1.6 and 1:10, respectively) and Cd in vitro bioaccessibility. Cd‐contaminated rice grains with DMs of 20%, 15%, and 0% were cooked and then subjected to successive digestion in a gastrointestinal environment model.

Acrylamide is a known neurotoxin and probable carcinogen in humans. Researchers reported that foods rich in carbohydrates could generate high amounts of acrylamide at high temperatures. In recent years, hydrocolloids are applied to reduce acrylamide in thermally processed foods and the effect has been well proved. The present work was to investigate the effect of sodium alginate as the coating agent on acrylamide formation in fried potato chips by a Box‐Behnken design.

In recent years, to increase growth rate and prevent infectious diseases, an excessive use of antibiotics in livestock breeding processes has resulted in the presence of antibiotic residues in animal foods. In this experiment, a new kind of electrochemical sensor is prepared based on magnetic mesoporous hollow carbon microspheres (MHM) as a penicillinase (Pen X) adsorption carrier to rapidly detect penicillin sodium (Pen G), named Pen X/MHM/MGCE.

Acrylamide (AA), classified as a probable carcinogen, can be neurotoxic, genotoxic, and can damage DNA. This study explored the ability of seabuckthorn berries juice (SBJ) to alleviate AA‐induced toxic injury in rats. Twenty‐four adult male Sprague‐Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into four groups: control group, AA group (40 mg/kg), AA + SBJ (40 mg/kg AA and 5 mL/kg SBJ), and AA + vitamin C (VC) group (positive control group, 40 mg/kg AA and 100 mg/kg VC).