Formation of furan in baby food products: Identification and technical challenges

Furan is generally produced during thermal processing of various foods including baked, fried, and roasted food items such as cereal products, coffee, canned, and jarred prepared foods as well as in baby foods. Furan is a toxic and carcinogenic compound to humans and may be a vital hazard to infants and babies. Furan could be formed in foods through thermal degradation of carbohydrates, dissociation of amino acids, and oxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids. The detection of furan in food products is difficult due to its high volatility and low molecular weight. Headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) is generally used for analysis of furan in food samples. The risk assessment of furan can be characterized using margin of exposure approach (MOE). Conventional strategies including cooking in open vessels, reheating of commercially processed foods with stirring, and physical removal using vacuum treatment have remained unsuccessful for the removal of furan due to the complex production mechanisms and possible precursors of furan. The innovative food-processing technologies such as high-pressure processing (HPP), high-pressure thermal sterilization (HPTS), and Ohmic heating have been adapted for the reduction of furan levels in baby foods. But in recent years, only HPP has gained interest due to successful reduction of furan because of its nonthermal mechanism. HPP-treated baby food products are commercially available from different food companies. This review summarizes the mechanism involved in the formation of furan in foods, its toxicity, and identification in infant foods and presents a solution for limiting its formation, occurrence, and retention using novel strategies.     

Efficacy of Chlorine Dioxide, Ozone, and Thyme Essential Oil or a Sequential Washing in Killing Escherichia coli O157:H7 on Lettuce and Baby Carrots

Chlorine dioxide (ClO₂), ozone, and thyme essential oil has been found to be effective in reducing pathogens, including Escherichia coli O157:H7, on selected produce. The efficacy of these sanitizers was evaluated, alone or through their sequential washing to achieve a 3 or more log reduction of mixed strains of E. coli O157:H7 on shredded lettuce and baby carrots. Samples sprinkle inoculated with mixed strains of E. coli O157:H7 were air-dried for 1 h at 22±2°C in a biosafety cabinet, stored at 4°C for 24 h, and then treated with different concentrations of disinfectants and exposure time. Sterile deionized water washing resulted in approximately 1log reduction ofE. coli O157:H7 after 10 min washing of lettuce and baby carrots. Gaseous treatments resulted in higher log reductions in comparison to aqueous washing. However, decolorization of lettuce leaves was observed during long exposure time. A logarithmic reduction of 1.48-1.97log₁₀ cfu/g was obtained using aqueous ClO₂ (10.0 mg/L for 10 min) ozonated water (9.7 mg/L for 10 min) or thyme oil suspension (1.0 mL/L for 5 min) on lettuce and baby carrots. Of the three sequential washing treatments used in this study, thyme oil followed by aqueous ClO₂/ozonated water, or ozonated water/aqueous ClO₂ were significantly (P<0.05) more effective in reducing E. coli O157:H7 (3.75 and 3.99log, and 3.83 and 4.34 log reduction) on lettuce and baby carrots, respectively. The results obtained from this study indicate that sequential washing treatments could achieve 3-4log reduction of E. coli O157:H7 on shredded lettuce and baby carrots.     

市售婴幼儿肉泥感官特性描述词分析

通过感官分析市售8种婴幼儿肉泥,对得到的感官描述词进行多元统计分析。主成分分析结果表明:3个主成分的累计贡献率达75.330%。结合主成分分析和相关性分析,得到用于建立婴幼儿肉泥感官剖面的描述词为色泽、析水性、细腻度、均匀性、肉香气、果蔬香气、咸味、松软度、黏滞性、润滑性、总体可接受性。     

Polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) for baby bottles: a comprehensive assessment on polymer-related non-intentionally added substances (NIAS)

Polyphenylsulfone (PPSU) is a new material for the production of baby bottles. PPSU is a polyether plastic formally composed of bisphenol S (BPS) and 4,4?-dihydroxybiphenyl (DHBP), which both have slight endocrine activities in in vitro tests. So far, little is known about the presence and the release of potentially hazardous substances from PPSU baby bottles. In this study, we present a three-step approach for the analysis of PPSU starting with polymer characterisation in terms of chemical structure, total oligomer content and hydrolytic stability. Second is the determination of extractables focussing on monomers, monomer derivatives, linear and cyclic oligomers below 1000 Da and residual solvent. Third is a risk assessment on migration-related substances in accordance to European Union plastics regulation no. 10/2011 based on triplicate consecutive migration experiments using official milk simulant 50% ethanol. We analysed five types of PPSU baby bottles from different brands as well as corresponding raw materials from different manufacturers by various analytical techniques (high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-diode array detector /fluorescence detector/Corona/electrospray ionisation-MS, HPLC-size exclusion chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), ¹H-NMR). We found significant variations of PPSU materials from different producers with regard to polymer and oligomer chain end groups (methoxylation, chlorination), while total oligomer content below 1000 Da was similar (mean about 0.48%). BPS was not detected above 0.3 mg/kg polymer in any PPSU sample. Residual DHBP content ranged between 1.7 and 15.5 mg/kg polymer. The most common oligomer in all PPSU samples was the cyclic tetramer (about 1200 mg/kg polymer), which is the only cyclic compound below 1000 Da. Residual solvent, sulfolane, was determined to a maximum of 1300 mg/kg polymer. In migration tests, we detected exceedances of neither specific migration limits for listed substances nor of thresholds of toxicological concern for non-listed substances (monomer derivatives, oligomers). Based on our analytical results, no concerns exist regarding migration of polymer-related substances from PPSU baby bottles.     

佛山市售稻米及其制品中的高氯酸盐污染特征分析

目的 了解佛山市市售稻米及其制品中的高氯酸盐污染情况，为标准制订和风险管理提供理论基础。方法 2021年3月采集佛山市5个区25个街道的农贸市场、超市、餐饮店和母婴店销售的稻米及其制品共233份，采用液相色谱串联质谱仪法检测样中高氯酸盐浓度，分析稻米及其制品中的高氯酸盐污染特征。结果 高氯酸盐在稻米样品中检出率为57.8%(52/90)，湿米粉为98.8%(79/80)，糯米制品为90%(18/20)，特色米制品为100%(12/12)，婴幼儿辅食为87.1%(27/31)。稻米样品中的高氯酸盐平均浓度为2.5μg/kg，湿米粉为6.5μg/kg，糯米制品为3.7μg/kg，特色米制品为4.3μg/kg，婴幼儿谷类辅食为5.5μg/kg。不同稻米亚种中，籼米样品中的高氯酸盐平均浓度为2.9μg/kg，粳米为0.5μg/kg，糯米为4.2μg/kg。结论 市售稻米及其制品中的高氯酸盐污染较为普遍，其中稻米的高氯酸盐污染水平低于稻米制品和婴幼儿辅食，而湿米粉是稻米制品中高氯酸盐污染水平最高的一种，婴幼儿辅食中的高氯酸盐污染水平也较高。