Sanitary legislation governing Food Services in Brazil

The Technical Regulation of Good Practices for Brazilian Food Services (Regulamento Técnico de Boas Práticas para Serviços de Alimentação do Brasil) can be complemented by sanitary surveillance agencies at the state, district and municipal levels by tailoring it to location-specific requirements. The purpose of the present study was to survey sanitary legislation governing Brazilian Food Services. During the period from November 2011 to November 2012, a survey was conducted with the sanitary surveillance agencies from the various states, capitals and the Federal District. A previously prepared and tested tool was used for data collection, comprising 10 questions. Only 10 (19.2%) of the sanitary codes had been established prior to RDC Resolution n° 216/2004 and were not complementary. Of the legislation cited as complementary, only the states of Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and São Paulo and the capital of the state of São Paulo truly presented additional and location-specific aspects. No legislation that was specific to hospital kitchens was found. The majority of participating coordination, including the Evaluation List for Good Practices in Food Services, was also verified; however, it had not been published. In conclusion, a gap in sanitary surveillance services exists, which was caused by the lack of location-specific food service regulations.     

Impact of an Engineered Copper-Titanium Dioxide Nanocomposite and Parent Substrates on the Bacteria Viability,Antioxidant Enzymes and Fatty Acid Profiling

Due to the systematic increase in the production of nanomaterials (NMs) and their applications in many areas of life, issues associated with their toxicity are inevitable. In particular, the performance of heterogeneous NMs, such as nanocomposites (NCs), is unpredictable as they may inherit the properties of their individual components. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to assess the biological activity of newly synthesized Cu/TiO₂-NC and the parent nanoparticle substrates Cu-NPs and TiO₂-NPs on the bacterial viability, antioxidant potential and fatty acid composition of the reference Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis strains. Based on the toxicological parameters, it was found that B. subtilis was more sensitive to NMs than E. coli. Furthermore, Cu/TiO₂-NC and Cu-NPs had an opposite effect on both strains, while TiO₂-NPs had a comparable mode of action. Simultaneously, the tested strains exhibited varied responses of the antioxidant enzymes after exposure to the NMs, with Cu-NPs having the strongest impact on their activity. The most considerable alternations in the fatty acid profiles were found after the bacteria were exposed to Cu/TiO₂-NC and Cu-NPs. Microscopic images indicated distinct interactions of the NMs with the bacterial outer layers, especially in regard to B. subtilis. Cu/TiO₂-NC generally proved to have less distinctive antimicrobial properties on B. subtilis than E. coli compared to its parent components. Presumably, the biocidal effects of the tested NMs can be attributed to the induction of oxidative stress, the release of metal ions and specific electrochemical interactions with the bacterial cells.     

Starch: a potential substrate for biohydrogen production

Hydrogen is a clean energy carrier with great potential to be an alternative fuel. Anaerobic hydrogen fermentation seems to be more favorable, since hydrogen is yielded at high rates and various organic waste and wastewater enriched with carbohydrates as substrate result in low cost for hydrogen production. Abundant biomass from various industries could be a source for biohydrogen production where combination of waste treatment and energy production would be an advantage. Carbohydrate‐rich nitrogen‐deficient solid wastes such as starch residues can be used for hydrogen production by using suitable bioprocess technologies. Alternatively, converting biomass into gaseous fuels, such as biohydrogen, is possibly the most efficient way to use these agroindustrial residues. This review summarizes the potential of starch agroindustrial residues as a substrate for biohydrogen production. Types of potential starch agroindustrial residues, recent developments and bio‐processing conditions for biohydrogen production will be discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of the novel Droplet digital PCR technology for identification of meat species

The authenticity and traceability of meat products are issues of primary importance to ensure food safety. Unfortunately, food adulteration (e.g. the addition of inexpensive cuts to minced meat products) and mislabelling (e.g. the inclusion of meat from species other than those declared) happens frequently worldwide. The aim of this study was to apply a droplet digital PCR assay for the detection and quantification (copies μL⁻¹) of the beef, pork, horse, sheep, chicken and turkey in meat products. The analysis conducted on commercial meat showed the presence of traces of DNA from other animal species than those declared. We show that the method is highly sensitive, specific and accurate (accuracy = 100%). This method could be adopted by competent food safety authorities to verify compliance with the labelling of meat products and to ensure quality and safety throughout the meat supply chain, from primary production to consumption.     

Prevalence,enumeration, and characterization of Salmonella isolated from aquatic food products from retail markets in China

This study aimed to estimate the extent and level of Salmonella contamination of aquatic food products in China, and to determine serotype, virulotype, and the antimicrobial resistance profiles of recovered Salmonella isolates. Out of 554 samples collected from July 2011 to May 2014, 86 (15.5%) tested positive for Salmonella. The highest contamination rate occurred in oysters (23.1%, 6/26), followed by freshwater fish (18.6%, 43/231), shrimp (13.0%, 13/100), and saltwater fish (12.2%, 24/197). The contamination levels generally corresponded to a most probable number (MPN)/g of 0.3–10, although one sample exceeded 110 MPN/g. Among the 103 isolates, S. Typhimurium, S. Wandsworth, S. Thompson, and S. Derby were the most prevalent serovars. Sixty-eight isolates (66.0%) were resistant to at least one antimicrobial, and 35 (34.0%) were resistant to more than three. High rates of resistance were observed for tetracycline (35.9%), ampicillin (28.2%), nalidixic acid (26.2%), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (25.2%), chloramphenicol (20.4%) and streptomycin (18.4%). Of note, S. Thompson isolates exhibited resistance to multiple extended-spectrum cephalosporins, ciprofloxacin, and other antimicrobials. PCR analysis of 15 virulence genes showed that ssaQ, mgtC, siiD, sopB, and bcfC were present in all 103 isolates, whereas the remaining loci were variably distributed. S. Typhimurium, S. Enteritidis, and S. Weltevreden isolates exhibited a wider range of pathogenicity determinants compared with the other strains. Our study provides a comprehensive surveillance on prevalence of Salmonella in aquatic food products from China and indicates its potential risk to public health. These data are valuable for epidemiological studies, risk management, and public health strategies.     

Food recognition using neural network classifier and multiple hypotheses image segmentation

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes the multiple-hypotheses image segmentation and feed-forward neural network classifier for food recognition to improve the performance. Initially, the food or meal image is given as input. Then, the segmentation is applied to identify the regions, where a particular food item is located using salient region detection, multi-scale segmentation, and fast rejection. Then, the features of every food item are extracted by the global feature and local feature extraction. After the features are obtained, the classification is performed for each segmented region using a feed-forward neural network model. Finally, the calorie value is computed with the aid of (i) food volume and (ii) calorie and nutrition measure based on mass value. The experimental results and performance evaluation are validated. The outcome of the proposed method attains 0.947 for Macro Average Accuracy (MAA) and 0.959 for Standard Accuracy (SA), which provides better classification performance.     

Survey of domestic food purchases and related home handling practices in the Abruzzo region (central Italy): Data collection and analysis through a language-independent classification system

A telephone survey was carried out on 13,486 randomly selected households located in the Abruzzo region (central Italy). Three questionnaires were specifically designed in relation to three different groups of foods (Meat and meat products, Fishery products, Fruit and vegetables). Questions were mainly focused on the amount and number of purchases, type of retailer, and home food handling practices with respect to the week prior to the interview. Data were classified according to a multilingual thesaurus system (LanguaL). Results allowed to estimate domestic purchases (in kg) per capita for different food categories. The category “Red meat/Cattle” accounted for a large part of purchases in the “meat and meat products” group (10.9 kg per capita/year; 32.2% of purchases in the group) while the category “Fish or related organism/Fish” was the most purchased in the “fishery products” group (6.9 kg per capita/year; 63.3%). The aggregation of more detailed characteristics enabled the identification of popular categories of foods, such as “Red meat/Cattle/Divided into pieces” (25% of the “meat and meat products” group). Significant differences (p < 0.05) were found between the four different provinces (L'Aquila, Chieti, Pescara and Teramo) with respect to “Poultry/Chicken” and “Red meat/Cattle” categories. Householders were also asked about post-purchase food handling practices that might be hazardous to food safety. More than 20% of those surveyed stated that they thawed frozen meat at room temperature. The degree of doneness after cooking of different food categories was generally high: over 90% of products purchased in the majority of meat and fish categories were properly cooked. However a noticeable proportion of householders (about 15%) reported medium or rare cooking of “Red meat/Cattle” and “Red meat/Swine”. Differences (p < 0.05) were also found between consumers of different ages, with people over 65 years old being more prone to freeze meat and cook it thoroughly.The survey was carried out in a specific geographic area and on a statistically significant sample of households, thus allowing a collection of data on domestic habits relating to food purchases and home food handling practices. This information should be included in the framework of quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) models as a measure of the actual exposure of consumers to pathogenic microorganism. The LanguaL system also proved to be a practical language-independent method useful not only to identify and describe food items but also to classify them according to specific food safety characteristics.     

浅析医药包装

随着市场经济的深入，医药包装正成为我国经济发展的朝阳产业，文中意在介绍先进的医药包装材料。分析其应用情况及发展趋势和动态。     

Inhibition of microbial growth in ready‐to‐eat food stored at ambient temperature by modified atmosphere packaging

This study was undertaken to develop a modified atmosphere package to control microbial growth in ready‐to‐eat (RTE) products stored at ambient temperature. Ethanol and/or limonene associated with modified atmosphere (CO₂ : O₂ : N₂ = 30% : 5% : 65%) was used to inhibit the growth of total air‐borne microorganisms and Escherichia coli in RTE products stored at 25°C. The results indicated that 0.05% ethanol vapour in the headspace was effective to inhibit the growth of air‐borne microorganisms and E. coli at 25°C for 72 h in a model study, and the effectiveness was related to ethanol content. Both 73 ppm limonene and 0.05% ethanol vapour enhanced the bacteriostatic effect of modified atmosphere in RTE sushi roll products, and no off‐flavour was detected using this formulated gas; however, no significant inhibitory effect was observed for RTE cold noodle products. This study concludes that combinations of carbon dioxide, ethanol or limonene vapours are effective to inhibit microbial growth in RTE food at ambient temperature, and the outcome may be due to the hurdle effect. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.