Research Publications (Food Safety)

Hepatitis A virus (HAV) has caused massive foodborne disease and economic losses in the world and remains a public health problem. ISO 15216–2:2019 is currently the universal standard for the extraction and concentration of HAV detection in food. Nevertheless, the salted food substrate and low viral content often result in low recovery rates or detection sensitivities using the standard ISO method (ISM) and the modified method with PEG(MPM).

Bacillus cereus is a foodborne pathogen that widely exists in various food products. In this study, a new B. cereus phage, named Z3, was isolated from the soil and characterized. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations revealed that Z3 had an icosahedral head and a retractable tail, belonging to myxovirus. The double-stranded linear DNA of Z3 was 159,116 bp in length with a CG% content of 39.96%.

In this study, we investigated the effect of food matrices on the heat tolerance of Salmonella strains and evaluated the impact of sugar and fat on the heat resistance of these strains. We tested ten strains of Salmonella spp. isolated from eggs and ten from sesame seeds.

Foodborne diseases have a considerable negative impact on socioeconomic development globally and are an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Among the foodborne bacterial pathogens, Campylobacter spp. is recognized as the leading cause of foodborne illness.

Absorbent food pads are commonly used to absorb exudate drained from food to maintain initial food quality throughout shelf life. However, the absorbed exudate often serves as a nutrient for contaminating pathogens in the pads, requiring appropriate antimicrobial strategies.

Widespread foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes exhibits a pronounced fatality rate among individuals with compromised immune systems, the elderly, and pregnant women. A simple and user-friendly approach is required to identify L. monocytogenes. A distinctive thermostatic nucleic acid amplification technology called polymerase spiral reaction (PSR) has been extensively employed in the identification of foodborne pathogens.

Reduction of Campylobacter on broiler meat is crucial for decreasing the number of campylobacteriosis cases. A module (IceGun®) that sprays slurry ice on carcasses has been developed to enhance the chilling capacity in poultry slaughterhouses and may, in addition, help reduce the bacterial load. The present study investigated how slurry ice (IceGun®) affects the Campylobacter load on broiler carcasses.

This study investigated the effect of melatonin (MT) on postharvest storage quality of passion fruit. Passion fruits were treated with four different concentrations of MT solutions (100, 200, 300 and 400 μmol/L) for 30 min and stored for 8 days.

This study aimed to develop antimicrobial sachets by encapsulating Zataria multiflora essential oil (ZMEO) within halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) at different mass ratios (3:1, 2:1, and 1:1) and incorporating them into bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) films at two concentrations (10 % and 20 %) for cheese applications.

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in four kinds of fermented soybean-related products used as traditional Chinese food: fermented soybean (FS), fermented qianzhang (FQ), fermented bean curd (FB) and fermented okara (FO). A total of 203 samples, comprising FS (40 samples), FQ (60), FB (41) and FO (62), were collected from free markets of agricultural food, convenience stores and supermarkets in Hubei province, China from November 2021 to January 2022.

This study aimed to develop a mixed starter of Limosilactobacillus fermentum YZU-06 and Staphylococcus saprophyticus CGMCC 3475 isolated from Jinhua ham for enhancing the production of branched-chain flavor compounds from pork myofibrillar protein.

Anti-biofilm and anti-virulence effects of blueberry extract (BE) at sub-inhibitory of concentrations (SICs) against Vibrio parahaemolyticus were investigated in this study. When three V. parahaemolyticus strains were exposed to BE at 6.25 mg/mL and 9.38 mg/mL, swarming and twitching motility were suppressed by 40.4%–57.1% and 20.8%–39.1%, respectively. Hydrophobicity and auto-aggregation were decreased by 63.2%–94.5% and 43.8%–88.4%, respectively.

CRISPR (Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) has been a cutting-edge biotechnology in both gene editing and biosensing due to its desirable features, such as high base resolution and set-and-forget operation. However, as a nucleic acid detection method, an DNA/RNA amplification procedure is still inevitable in CRISPR biosensors.

Fluorescence-labeled antibodies and viability indicators are routinely employed in conjunction with flow cytometry (FCM) to rapidly quantify viable target bacteria, ensuring food safety. However, the specific detection of Bacillus cereus, a prominent bacterium causing food poisoning, proves challenging because of its close phylogenetic relationship with other Bacillus species.

The concentration of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) in plasma-activated water (PAW) can be increased by increasing the input power, discharge voltage, and discharge time under a constant discharge frequency. However, knowledge regarding RONS concentration prepared under different discharge frequencies is lacking. This study investigated how decreasing the discharge frequency affects the chemical and physical properties of PAW.

Plasma-activated water (PAW) is gaining interest as a novel sanitizer for foods. However, the sanitizing efficacy of PAW varies under different conditions, and its modes of action and impacts on food quality need further investigation for it to be applied in the food industry.

Bacillus cereus is important foodborne pathogen that causes food poisoning and other non-gastrointestinal infections, which could cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Phages have antibacterial potential to control this pathogen, especially antibiotic resistant ones.

Cold shock precooling with ice-water mixture (0 ± 2 °C) was innovatively utilized in this study to supposedly improve the postharvest quality of chili pepper fruit during storage at 10 ± 2 °C. The chili peppers were randomly exposed to four different treatment groups being without and with cold shock for 30 min, 60 min and 90 min.

Plant-derived alternatives to antibiotics are of great concern. The goal of this work was to enhance the Hu Zhang (Polygonum cuspidatum) extraction procedure against non-O1/O139 V. cholerae (HZE), identify the antibacterial components, analyze the mechanism of action, and investigate its potential in prawn storage.

The activity of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) can be enhanced by sodium chloride (NaCl), but whether this applies to halotolerant bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, is unknown. Ten peptides with antimicrobial potential were identified from Penaeus vannamei using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry and in silico analysis.

The aim of this study was to evaluate, quantify and model the survival of Salmonella in fresh-cut lettuce during washings with chlorinated water at different free chlorine concentrations (FCC, 0–150 mg/L). Individual fresh-cut lettuce samples (4 cm2) were inoculated with a Salmonella culture (ca. 4 log CFU/cm2) and washed with 100-mL solutions with different FCC for different times (0–150 s).

This study aimed to investigate the growth characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus in grilled oysters under different storage temperatures by establishing and comparing the relevant dynamic growth prediction models. The growth data of S.

This study proposes a novel qualitative and quantitative analysis method for wheat mildew degree and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) by microwave detection technology combined with multi-task learning strategy. The team developed a miniaturized microwave detection device with double heterodyne mixing structure, and used this device to obtain the transmission indexes (amplitude and phase) of moldy wheat samples.

This study aimed to evaluate the preoperational cleaning process of a poultry slaughterhouse regarding microbial ecology, microorganisms indicators of hygienic-sanitary conditions, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella spp.

This study aims to biocontrol of Bacillus cereus by Lactobacillus planetarium in Kareish cheese and yogurts. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs), antioxidant potentials, total flavonoids content (TFC) and total phenolic content (TPC) of L. planetarium were also estimated. Results showed that incidence of B. cereus in Kareish cheese and yogurt was 16 and 4%, respectively.