Juice-associated outbreaks of human illness in the United States, 1995 through 2005

Outbreaks of illness associated with consumption of fruit juice have been a growing public health problem since the early 1990s. In response to epidemiologic investigations of outbreaks in which juice was implicated, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration implemented process control measures to regulate the production of fruit juice. The final juice regulation, which became effective in 2002, 2003, and 2004, depending on the size of the business, requires that juice operations comply with a hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) plan. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) receives reports of food-associated outbreaks of illness. We reviewed fruit juice-associated outbreaks of illness reported to the CDC's Foodborne Outbreak Reporting System. From 1995 through 2005, 21 juice-associated outbreaks were reported to CDC; 10 implicated apple juice or cider, 8 were linked to orange juice, and 3 involved other types of fruit juice. These outbreaks caused 1,366 illnesses, with a median of 21 cases per outbreak (range, 2 to 398 cases). Among the 13 outbreaks of known etiology, 5 were caused by Salmonella, 5 by Escherichia coli O157:H7, 2 by Cryptosporidium, and one by Shiga toxin-producing E. coli O111 and Cryptosporidium. Fewer juice-associated outbreaks have been reported since the juice HACCP regulation was implemented. Some juice operations that are exempt from processing requirements or do not comply with the regulation continue to be implicated in outbreaks of illness.     

Moderately High Hydrostatic Pressure Processing to Reduce Production Costs of Shredded Cheese: Microstructure, Texture, and Sensory Properties of Shredded Milled Curd Cheddar

ABSTRACT: Short and moderate hydrostatic pressure (MHP) treatments accelerated the shredability of Cheddar cheese. Both MHP (345 MPa for 3 and 7 min) and higher pressure (483 MPa for 3 and 7 min) treatments applied to 1-d milled curd Cheddar cheese induced immediately a microstructure resembling that of ripened cheese. Unripened pressure-treated Cheddar cheese yielded shreds with visual and tactile sensory properties similar to those obtained from untreated 27-d-old Cheddar cheese. All pressure treatments reduced the presence of crumbles, increased mean shred particle length, improved length uniformity, and enhanced surface smoothness. Sensory evaluations showed that shredded samples of 1-d MHP-treated cheese and 27-d untreated cheese had similar sensory attributes. Pressure treatments did not affect mechanical properties of ripened cheese and milk protein proteolysis was not inhibited. These results showed that MHP would allow processors to shred milled curd Cheddar cheese immediately after block cooling with expected refrigerated storage savings of more than $30 US/1000 kg cheese and could simplify the handling of cheese for shredding. Shreds from unripened milled curd Cheddar cheese can thus be produced with high visual acceptability and improved tactile handling using moderate levels of hydrostatic pressure.     

Advancing the Water Footprint into an Instrument to Support Achieving the SDGs – Recommendations from the “Water as a Global Resources” Research Initiative (GRoW)

Water Resources Management - The water footprint has developed into a widely-used concept to examine water use and resulting local impacts caused during agricultural and industrial...     

Extraction of reactive dyes from aqueous solutions by halogen‐free ionic liquids

Dyes are commonly used in various industries and unfortunately many of them are discharged into water bodies, causing environmental problems. In the current study, three hydrophobic, halogen‐free ionic liquids were synthesised and their capability as extracting agents was evaluated using four reactive dyes (CI Reactive Blue 4, CI Reactive Black 5, CI Reactive Orange 16 and CI Reactive Red 2). The ionic liquids, immiscible with the aqueous phase, could extract the reactive dyes from aqueous solutions, withdrawing the same amount of weight. The effects of pH and temperature on the extraction process were also studied. Trioctylmethyl ammonium ethylenediaminetetraacetate displayed a high extraction efficiency (99%), where only 33 mg of ionic liquids extracted 50 mg of CI Reactive Blue 4. Fourier Transform–infrared spectroscopy was used to screen the interaction between the ionic liquid and CI Reactive Blue 4 during the extraction stage.     

Hydrodynamic and mass transfer characterization of a flat-panel airlift photobioreactor with high light path

This work evaluates the volumetric mass transfer coefficient (k_La), the gas hold-up (?) and the mixing time (t_m) as a function of superficial gas velocity (U_G) in a flat-panel photobioreactor (PBR) with high light path. CO₂ utilization efficiency and volumetric power consumption (P/V) were also evaluated. A 50 L working volume photobioreactor was developed, 0.67 m in length, 0.57 m in height and 0.15 m in width (light path). The height-width ratio was 3.8, which is lower than reported in most PBRs. Initially, experiments were performed with air and tap water (biphasic system) and, subsequently, using a Spirulina sp. culture (triphasic system: air, culture medium, cells). Minimum and maximum superficial gas velocity values were 5 × 10⁻⁵ and 8.4 × 10⁻³ m s⁻¹, respectively. Maximum values for k_La and ? were 20.34 h⁻¹ (0.0057 s⁻¹) and 0.033 in the biphasic system, and 31.27 h⁻¹ (0.0087 s⁻¹) and 0.065 in the triphasic system. CO₂ utilization efficiency was 30.57%. Results indicate that the hydrodynamic and mass transfer characteristics of this photobioreactor are more efficient than those reported elsewhere for tubular and other flat-plate PBRs, which opens the possibility of using PBRs with higher light paths than yet proposed.