Olive oil waste treatment: a comparative and critical presentation of methods, advantages & disadvantages

Since olive oil industries were considered responsible for a great amount of pollution there has been a strong need for optimization of olive oil waste treatment systems. The currently employed systems are numerous and fall in the following large categories; bioremediation (ex-situ, in-situ), thermal processes (incineration, pyrolysis, gasification), evaporation, membrance processes, electrolysis, ozonation, digestion, coagulation/flocculation/precipitation, and distillation. Both advantages and disadvantages in conjunction with respective methodology and explicit flow diagrams were presented per waste treatment method. Furthermore, most recent studies were reported and more than twenty-five figures showing mainly the effectiveness of the current waste treatment methods versus time or temperature were displayed. The comparative presentation of the various olive oil waste treatment methodologies showed that though bioremediation stands for the most enviromentally friendly technique, its required longer treatment time in conjuction with its weakness to deal with elemental contaminants makes imperative the employment of a second alternative technique which could either be a membrance process (low energy cost, reliability, reduced capital cost) or a coagulation/flocculation method because of its low cost and high effectiveness. Biogas production appears to be another promising and energy effective waste treatment method. On the other hand, methods like distillation and ozonation (high cost) and electrolysis (experimental level) are unlikely to dominate this field unless their high cost is substantially reduced in the near future.     

Migration of substances from food packaging materials to foods

The employment of novel food packaging materials has increased the number of occurring hazards due to the migration from packaging material to the packaged food. Although polymers have mainly monopolized the interest of migration testing and experimentation, recent studies have revealed that migration also occurs from "traditional" materials generally considered to be safe, such as paper, carton, wood, ceramic, and metal. The regulations and the directives of the EU tend to become stricter in this respect. The emphasis is on reaching a consensus in terms of food simulants and testing conditions for migration studies. Furthermore, the list of hazardous monomers, oligomers, and additives continues to augment in order to ensure that the consumer safety is in current agreement with the HACCP, which is continuously gaining ground.     

Acrylamide: Formation,Occurrence in Food Products,Detection Methods,and Legislation

This review aims at summarizing the most recent updates in the field of acrylamide (AA) formation (mechanism, conditions) and the determination of AA in a number of foods (fried or baked potatoes, chips, coffee, bread, etc). The methods applied for AA detection [Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry (CE-MS), Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS), Non-Aqueous Capillary Electrophoresis (NACE), High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (HPLC-MS), Pressurized Fluid Extraction (PFE), Matrix Solid-Phase Dispersion (MSPD), Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), Solid-Phase MicroExtraction-Gas Chromatography (SPME-GC), Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), and MicroEmulsion ElectroKinetic Chromatography (MEEKC) are presented and commented. Several informative figures and tables are included to show the effect of conditions (temperature, time) on the AA formation. A section is also included related to AA legislation in EU and US.     

The use of molecular markers in the verification of fish and seafood authenticity and the detection of adulteration

The verification of authenticity and detection of food mislabeling are elements that have been of high importance for centuries. During the last few decades there has been an increasing consumer demand for the verification of food identity and the implementation of stricter controls around these matters. Fish and seafood are among the most easily adulterated foodstuffs mainly due to the significant alterations of the species' morphological characteristics that occur during the different types of processing, which render the visual identification of the animals impossible. Even simple processes, such as filleting remove very important morphological elements and suffice to prevent the visual identification of species in marketed products. Novel techniques have therefore been developed that allow identification of species, the differentiation between species and also the differentiation of individuals that belong to the same species but grow in different populations and regions. Molecular markers have been used during the last few decades to fulfill this purpose and several improvements have been implemented rendering their use applicable to a commercial scale. The reliability, accuracy, reproducibility, and time-and cost-effectiveness of these techniques allowed them to be established as routine methods in the industry and research institutes. This review article aims at presenting the most important molecular markers used for the authentication of fish and seafood. The most important techniques are described, and the results of numerous studies are outlined and discussed, allowing interested parties to easily access and compare information about several techniques and fish/seafood species.     

A review of rice authenticity/adulteration methods and results

Rice importance resides in its high consumption mainly in Asia and Africa and less in the EU. Several cultivars, both GM and non-GM, have established themselves in various regions depending mainly on the climatic and soil conditions. A high number of analytical, enzymic, and genomic analyses (instrumental) in conjunction with sensory analysis were applied (not always very successfully) towards detecting deliberate or non-deliberate rice adulteration. It was shown that the application of multivariate analysis to data obtained is very beneficial because it allows the effective discrimination of different origin, and/or cultivar rice. Although sensory analysis is based on a trained panel (subjective method), if this panel has been properly trained the adulteration results are comparable to those of the instrumental analysis obtained.     

Application of ISO 22000 and Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) for industrial processing of salmon: a case study

The Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) model was applied for risk assessment of salmon manufacturing. A tentative approach of FMEA application to the salmon industry was attempted in conjunction with ISO 22000. Preliminary Hazard Analysis was used to analyze and predict the occurring failure modes in a food chain system (salmon processing plant), based on the functions, characteristics, and/or interactions of the ingredients or the processes, upon which the system depends. Critical Control points were identified and implemented in the cause and effect diagram (also known as Ishikawa, tree diagram and fishbone diagram). In this work, a comparison of ISO 22000 analysis with HACCP is carried out over salmon processing and packaging. However, the main emphasis was put on the quantification of risk assessment by determining the RPN per identified processing hazard. Fish receiving, casing/marking, blood removal, evisceration, filet-making cooling/freezing, and distribution were the processes identified as the ones with the highest RPN (252, 240, 210, 210, 210, 210, 200 respectively) and corrective actions were undertaken. After the application of corrective actions, a second calculation of RPN values was carried out resulting in substantially lower values (below the upper acceptable limit of 130). It is noteworthy that the application of Ishikawa (Cause and Effect or Tree diagram) led to converging results thus corroborating the validity of conclusions derived from risk assessment and FMEA. Therefore, the incorporation of FMEA analysis within the ISO 22000 system of a salmon processing industry is anticipated to prove advantageous to industrialists, state food inspectors, and consumers.     

IMPLEMENTATION OF HAZARD ANALYSIS CRITICAL CONTROL POINT (HACCP) SYSTEM TO THE FISH/SEAFOOD INDUSTRY: A REVIEW

Today's fish industry is facing new challenges, with more complex products and processes that require intensive controls during their processing, storage and distribution. The HACCP concept can guarantee the safety of fish products, enhancing consumer confidence in the fish industry, while at the same time can motivate exporting developing countries to build a solid food-safety control system. This review intends to provide an update of HACCP implementation in various fields of the international fish industry and apply the basic principles of HACCP in flow diagrams of fish/seafood products in an effort to improve and assure their food safety.     

Implementation of chemometrics for quality control and authentication of meat and meat products

Multivariate analysis has been established as a very powerful and effective tool in classifying and grouping individual products. Principal Component Analysis, Canonical analysis, Cluster and Partial Least Squares were found to be indispensable for classifying food products according to variety and/or geographical origin. Meat and meat products were correctly classified for authentication purposes to various groups following instrumental and/or sensory analyses.     

Current state and advances in the implementation of ISO 14000 by the food industry. Comparison of ISO 14000 to ISO 9000 to other environmental programs

Nowadays, environmental pollution has become a very critical and acute issue and in view of the increasing number of industrial accidents both the public and ecological movements have managed to increase the sensitivity of governments of many countries toward these problems. Environmental awareness resulted in the recent promulgation of a new environmental standards, ISO 14000/EMS, aiming at universal acceptance to improve the environmental performance of companies, to minimize liabilities and to enhance the image of the companies. Food companies have just started to endorse this. In contrast, the chemical and the automobile industries were the first to adopt these new ISO 14000 standards.     

The effect of storage of canned meat on concentration of the metals Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb, Sn, Al, Cd and Ni

Storage of canned foods may enrich the concentration of some metals. Because their toxic and other properties the presence of which in foods over certain limits is undesirable. Therefore we have determined the contents of Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb, Sn, Al, Cd and Ni over a 2 years' time of bovine, pork and veal meat. The results show a gradual increase in the concentration of Fe, Cu, Sn and Zn with time in the order pork greater than bovine greater than veal.