Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 79 in total

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  1. Meliana C, Liu J, Show PL, Low SS
    Bioengineered, 2024 Dec;15(1):2310908.
    PMID: 38303521 DOI: 10.1080/21655979.2024.2310908
    The burden of food contamination and food wastage has significantly contributed to the increased prevalence of foodborne disease and food insecurity all over the world. Due to this, there is an urgent need to develop a smarter food traceability system. Recent advancements in biosensors that are easy-to-use, rapid yet selective, sensitive, and cost-effective have shown great promise to meet the critical demand for onsite and immediate diagnosis and treatment of food safety and quality control (i.e. point-of-care technology). This review article focuses on the recent development of different biosensors for food safety and quality monitoring. In general, the application of biosensors in agriculture (i.e. pre-harvest stage) for early detection and routine control of plant infections or stress is discussed. Afterward, a more detailed advancement of biosensors in the past five years within the food supply chain (i.e. post-harvest stage) to detect different types of food contaminants and smart food packaging is highlighted. A section that discusses perspectives for the development of biosensors in the future is also mentioned.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety*
  2. Fakhlaei R, Babadi AA, Sun C, Ariffin NM, Khatib A, Selamat J, et al.
    Food Chem, 2024 May 30;441:138402.
    PMID: 38218155 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2024.138402
    Safety and quality aspects of food products have always been critical issues for the food production and processing industries. Since conventional quality measurements are laborious, time-consuming, and expensive, it is vital to develop new, fast, non-invasive, cost-effective, and direct techniques to eliminate those challenges. Recently, non-destructive techniques have been applied in the food sector to improve the quality and safety of foodstuffs. The aim of this review is an effort to list non-destructive techniques (X-ray, computer tomography, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging, infrared, Raman, terahertz, nuclear magnetic resonance, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound imaging) based on the electromagnetic spectrum and discuss their principle and application in the food sector. This review provides an in-depth assessment of the different non-destructive techniques used for the quality and safety analysis of foodstuffs. We also discussed comprehensively about advantages, disadvantages, challenges, and opportunities for the application of each technique and recommended some solutions and developments for future trends.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
  3. Rahman MB, Hussain M, Kabiraz MP, Nordin N, Siddiqui SA, Bhowmik S, et al.
    Food Chem, 2023 Nov 30;427:136761.
    PMID: 37406446 DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.136761
    Formaldehyde is added illegally to food to extend its shelf life due to its antiseptic and preservation properties. Several research has been conducted to examine the consequences of adulteration with formaldehyde in food items. These findings suggest that adding formaldehyde to food is considered harmful as it accumulates in the body with long-term consumption. In this review includes study findings on food adulteration with formaldehyde and their assessment of food safety based on the analytical method applied to various geographical regions, food matrix types, and their sources in food items. Additionally, this review sought to assess the risk of formaldehyde-tainted food and the understanding of its development in food and its impacts on food safety in light of the widespread formaldehyde adulteration. Finally, the study would be useful as a manual for implementing adequate and successful risk assessment to increase food safety.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety*
  4. Siddiqui SA, Tettey E, Yunusa BM, Ngah N, Debrah SK, Yang X, et al.
    Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf, 2023 Nov;22(6):4786-4830.
    PMID: 37823805 DOI: 10.1111/1541-4337.13243
    Insect consumption is a traditional practice in many countries. Currently, the urgent need for ensuring food sustainability and the high pressure from degrading environment are urging food scientists to rethink the possibility of introducing edible insects as a promising food type. However, due to the lack of the standardized legislative rules and the adequate scientific data that demonstrate the safety of edible insects, many countries still consider it a grey area to introduce edible insects into food supply chains. In this review, we comprehensively reviewed the legal situation, consumer willingness, acceptance, and the knowledge on edible insect harvesting, processing as well as their safety concerns. We found that, despite the great advantage of introducing edible insects in food supply chains, the legal situation and consumer acceptance for edible insects are still unsatisfactory and vary considerably in different countries, which mostly depend on geographical locations and cultural backgrounds involving psychological, social, religious, and anthropological factors. Besides, the safety concern of edible insect consumption is still a major issue hurdling the promotion of edible insects, which is particularly concerning for countries with no practice in consuming insects. Fortunately, the situation is improving. So far, some commercial insect products like energy bars, burgers, and snack foods have emerged in the market. Furthermore, the European Union has also recently issued a specific item for regulating new foods, which is believed to establish an authorized procedure to promote insect-based foods and should be an important step for marketizing edible insects in the near future.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
  5. Adegoye GA, Tolar-Peterson T, Ene-Obong HN, Nuntah JN, Pasqualino MM, Mathews R, et al.
    PMID: 36981799 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20064891
    INTRODUCTION: fish can be an affordable and accessible animal-source food in many Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC).

    BACKGROUND: Traditional fish processing methods pose a risk of exposing fish to various contaminants that may reduce their nutritional benefit. In addition, a lack of literacy may increase women fish processors' vulnerability to malnutrition and foodborne diseases.

    OBJECTIVE: The overall aim of the project was to educate women and youth fish processors in Delta State, Nigeria about the benefit of fish in the human diet and to develop low literacy tools to help them better market their products. The objective of this study was to describe the development and validation of a low-literacy flipbook designed to teach women fish processors about nutrition and food safety.

    METHOD: developing and validating instructional material requires understanding the population, high-quality and relevant graphics, and the involvement of relevant experts to conduct the content validation using the Content Validity Index (CVI) and the index value translated with the Modified Kappa Index (k).

    RESULT: The Item-level Content Validity Index (I-CVI) value of all domains evaluated at the initial stage was 0.83 and the Scale-level Content Validity Index (S-CVI) was 0.90. At the final stage, the material was validated with CVI 0.983 by four experts and satisfied the expected minimum CVI value for this study (CVI ≥ 0.83, p-value = 0.05). The overall evaluation of the newly developed and validated flipbook was "excellent".

    CONCLUSIONS: the developed material was found to be appropriate for training fish processors in Nigeria in nutrition and food safety and could be modified for a population of fish processors in other LMICs.

    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
  6. Chaudhary MN, Lim VC, Sahimin N, Faller EM, Regmi P, Aryal N, et al.
    Travel Med Infect Dis, 2023;54:102620.
    PMID: 37487946 DOI: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2023.102620
    BACKGROUND: Annually, 600 million individuals are affected by food-borne diseases (FBD), alongside 425,000 fatalities. Improving the general public knowledge of, attitudes towards, and practices in, (KAP) food safety is necessary for minimizing FBD transmission. In Malaysia, migrant workers account for 11.1% of the workforce, with a high proportion involved in food and beverage services. Therefore, this study aimed (i) to evaluate the current food safety KAP, and (ii) to identify the strategies to promote food safety awareness, among migrant workers across occupational sectors in Klang Valley.

    METHOD: A survey was conducted with 403 migrant workers through phone interviews and online self-administered questionnaires. Piecewise structural equation modelling and multinomial regression were applied to identify predictor variables for food safety KAP and to explore differences across nationalities.

    RESULTS: The respondents were Nepalese, Filipino and Indonesian. The majority were male, working in the services industry, had completed high school, aged between 30 and 39 years and had worked in Malaysia for less than ten years. Knowledge was significantly correlated with attitudes and practices. Female respondents had lower knowledge and attitude scores while younger respondents had lower knowledge scores. Indonesian and Filipino respondents had lower knowledge and attitudes scores than Nepalese respondents. Understanding food safety information from social media was positively correlated with the respondents' food safety knowledge and practices.

    CONCLUSION: These findings highlighted: (i) the need to target female, younger, Indonesian and Filipino migrant workers, and (ii) the potential of social media to improve public awareness of food safety and hygienic practices.

    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
  7. Ding J, Qiao P, Wang J, Huang H
    Front Public Health, 2022;10:1052273.
    PMID: 36544788 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1052273
    Food safety has received unprecedented attention since the COVID-19 outbreak. Exploring food safety regulatory mechanisms in the context of cluster public crises is critical for COVID-19 prevention and control. As a result, using data from a food safety regulation survey in the Bei-jing-Tianjin-Hebei urban cluster, this paper investigates the impact of food safety regulation on the prevention and control of COVID-19. The study found that food safety regulation and cluster public crisis prevention and control have a significant positive relationship, with the ability to integrate regulatory resources acting as a mediator between the two. Second, industry groups argue that the relationship between regulatory efficiency and regulatory resource integration should be moderated in a positive manner. Finally, industry association support positively moderates the mediating role of regulatory re-source integration capacity between food safety regulatory efficiency and cluster public crises, and there is a mediating effect of being moderated. Our findings shed light on the mechanisms underlying the roles of regulatory efficiency, resource integration capacity, and industry association support in food safety, and they serve as a useful benchmark for further improving food safety regulations during the COVID-19 outbreak.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
  8. Jin Y, Teh SS, Lau HLN, Mah SH
    J Oleo Sci, 2021 Dec 03;70(12):1749-1759.
    PMID: 34759114 DOI: 10.5650/jos.ess21215
    Refined red palm-pressed mesocarp olein (PPMO) is recovered from palm-pressed mesocarp fiber, which is a by-product from palm oil mill. Its utilization in food industry is extremely limited even though it contains various phytonutrients. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate its toxicity effects by using the male Sprague-Dawley rat model. The rats were administered with a single dose of 2 g/kg PPMO in an acute toxicity study while administered with 2, 1, or 0.5 g/kg PPMO daily for 28 days in a sub-chronic toxicity study. The mortality, oral LD50 value, clinical observation, body and organ weight, hematological and biochemical analyses, pathological and histopathological examinations were assessed. The overall outcomes indicated that PPMO is non-toxic up to 2 g/kg and considered safe to be used in food application, especially as functional food ingredient and supplement attributed to its phytonutrients. Besides, this study provides an insight in alternative utilization of the wastes from palm oil mill.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
  9. Ma NL, Peng W, Soon CF, Noor Hassim MF, Misbah S, Rahmat Z, et al.
    Environ Res, 2021 Feb;193:110405.
    PMID: 33130165 DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2020.110405
    The recently emerged coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has been characterised as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), is impacting all parts of human society including agriculture, manufacturing, and tertiary sectors involving all service provision industries. This paper aims to give an overview of potential host reservoirs that could cause pandemic outbreak caused by zoonotic transmission. Amongst all, continues surveillance in slaughterhouse for possible pathogens transmission is needed to prevent next pandemic outbreak. This paper also summarizes the potential threats of pandemic to agriculture and aquaculture sector that control almost the total food supply chain and market. The history lesson from the past, emerging and reemerging infectious disease including the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002, Influenza A H1N1 (swine flu) in 2009, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012 and the recent COVID-19 should give us some clue to improve especially the governance to be more ready for next coming pandemic.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
  10. Gao P, Mohd Noor NQI, Md Shaarani S
    PMID: 33356490 DOI: 10.1080/10408398.2020.1866490
    Food safety issues associated with aquatic food products become more important with the increasing consumption and followed by its ongoing challenges. The objective of this paper is to review the food safety hazards and health risks related to aquatic food products for the Southeast Asian region. These hazards can be categorized as microplastics (MPs) hazard, biological hazards (pathogenic bacteria, biogenic amines, viruses, parasites), and chemical hazards (antimicrobial, formaldehyde, heavy metal). In different Southeast Asian countries, the potential health risks of aquatic food products brought by food hazards to consumers were at different intensity and classes. Among all these hazards, pathogenic bacteria, antimicrobials, and heavy metal were a particular concern in the Southeast Asian region. With environmental changes, evolving consumption patterns, and the globalization of trade, new food safety challenges are created, which put forward higher requirements on food technologies, food safety regulations, and international cooperation.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
  11. Usman S, Abdull Razis AF, Shaari K, Amal MNA, Saad MZ, Mat Isa N, et al.
    PMID: 33371479 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17249591
    Technological advances, coupled with increasing demands by consumers, have led to a drastic increase in plastic production. After serving their purposes, these plastics reach our water bodies as their destination and become ingested by aquatic organisms. This ubiquitous phenomenon has exposed humans to microplastics mostly through the consumption of sea food. This has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to make an urgent call for the assessment of environmental pollution due to microplastics and its effect on human health. This review summarizes studies between 1999 and 2020 in relation to microplastics in aquatic ecosystems and human food products, their potential toxic effects as elicited in animal studies, and policies on their use and disposal. There is a paucity of information on the toxicity mechanisms of microplastics in animal studies, and despite their documented presence in food products, no policy has been in place so far, to monitor and regulates microplastics in commercial foods meant for human consumption. Although there are policies and regulations with respect to plastics, these are only in a few countries and in most instances are not fully implemented due to socioeconomic reasons, so they do not address the problem across the entire life cycle of plastics from production to disposal. More animal research to elucidate pathways and early biomarkers of microplastic toxicity that can easily be detected in humans is needed. This is to create awareness and influence policies that will address this neglected threat to food safety and security.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
  12. Jairoun AA, Shahwan M, Zyoud SH
    Sci Rep, 2020 11 02;10(1):18824.
    PMID: 33139833 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-76000-w
    A specific safety concern is the possibility that a dietary supplement could be contaminated with heavy metals. This research was undertaken to investigate the daily exposure levels of heavy metals in dietary supplements available in the UAE and to explore the factors associated with the contamination of dietary supplements with heavy metals. A total of 277 dietary supplement samples were collected from the UAE market and prepared for the analysis of selected heavy metal contamination. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine the presence of heavy metals. The average daily intake of cadmium was 0.73 μg [95% CI 0.61-0.85], compared to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 6 μg; the daily intake of lead was 0.85 μg [95% CI 0.62-1.07], compared to the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 20 μg; and the daily intake of arsenic was 0.67 μg [95% CI 0.57-0.78], compared to the acceptable daily intake of 10 μg. Although the dietary supplements available in the UAE have low levels of heavy metal contamination, numerous individuals are consuming a number of different dietary supplements every day and thereby may experience a cumulative level of toxic exposure. Dietary supplements formulations (Categories), dosage forms and country of origin are strong determents of heavy metal contamination in dietary supplements products.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety*
  13. Zhang Y, Zhou L, Zhang C, Show PL, Du A, Fu J, et al.
    Carbohydr Polym, 2020 Nov 01;247:116670.
    PMID: 32829798 DOI: 10.1016/j.carbpol.2020.116670
    With the growing interest in food safety and in environmental protection, it is more attractive to develop novel biodegradable packaging films. In this regard, one new blending film was prepared with curdlan (CD)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/thyme essential oil. Our results demonstrated that the mechanical properties of the blending film were the best when the ratio of the CD and PVA was 4:1. Further, the barrier properties of the film were optimized by incorporating with thyme essential oil. It was proved that not only water vapor permeability was lower, but also the elongation at break was improved, when 2% (w/w) thyme essential oil used. The potential interactions of the film matrix were analyzed by FTIR, XRD and Cryo-scanning electron microscopy. Importantly, both the antioxidant activity and antibacterial activity were improved. Finally, the blending film was employed for the preservation of chilled meat, while the shelf life was extended up to 10 days.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
  14. Sukirman AN, Khalex HB, Mustafa S, Sarbini SR, Hassan S, S-Hussain SS, et al.
    J Food Prot, 2020 Oct 01;83(10):1764-1774.
    PMID: 32463874 DOI: 10.4315/JFP-19-543
    ABSTRACT: Umai is a popular, traditional, native dish of the Melanau ethnic group in Sarawak. It is prepared using thin slices of raw marine fish marinated with calamansi juice and seasoned with other ingredients. The local people believe that the acidity of the citrus juice, along with the use of salt and spice, can slightly cook the fish and remove the fishy smell. The aim of this study was to investigate (i) the different umai handling and preparation practices and (ii) the personal experience of umai consumption among respondents. A purposive sample of 100 umai makers, divided into two equal groups, professionals and nonprofessionals, participated in the study. We found that Spanish mackerel and hairfin anchovy were ranked first and second in the list of species chosen for making umai, with the former mostly preferred by the professional group, as opposed to the latter, which was preferred by the nonprofessional group. Black pomfret was ranked third, where it is equally preferred by both groups. About 20% of respondents would freeze the raw fish chunks prior to preparing umai, as opposed to 26% who would sun dry their fish. Other techniques, such as salting and marinating (using calamansi juice), were also used during the preparation of umai. Most of the respondents indicated that they would consider the umai ready to eat soon after marinating (with all ingredients) the raw fish. One-third of both respondent groups indicated that they would chill the umai dish at 4°C for 30 min before serving. The respondents could not provide any rationale behind these food preparation practices. Overall, this study provides evidence of the different preparation methods for umai. These practices can thus be considered important targets for public health education campaigns seeking to improve food safety surrounding this food group.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety*
  15. Mir SA, Siddiqui MW, Dar BN, Shah MA, Wani MH, Roohinejad S, et al.
    J Appl Microbiol, 2020 Sep;129(3):474-485.
    PMID: 31800143 DOI: 10.1111/jam.14541
    Consumers' demand is increasing for safe foods without impairing the phytochemical and sensory quality. In turn, it has increased research interest in the exploration of innovative food processing technologies. Cold plasma technology is getting popularity now days owing to its high efficacy in decontamination of microbes in fruit and fruit-based products. As a on-thermal approach, plasma processing maintains the quality of fruits and minimizes the thermal effects on nutritional properties. Cold plasma is also exploited for inactivating enzymes and degrading pesticides as both are directly related with quality loss and presently are most important concerns in fresh produce industry. The present review covers the influence of cold plasma technology on reducing microbial risks and enhancing the quality attributes in fruits.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
  16. Yazid SNE, Jinap S, Ismail SI, Magan N, Samsudin NIP
    Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf, 2020 03;19(2):643-669.
    PMID: 33325175 DOI: 10.1111/1541-4337.12541
    In this review, we present the current information on development and applications of biological control against phytopathogenic organisms as well as mycotoxigenic fungi in Malaysia as part of the integrated pest management (IPM) programs in a collective effort to achieve food security. Although the biological control of phytopathogenic organisms of economically important crops is well established and widely practiced in Malaysia with considerable success, the same cannot be said for mycotoxigenic fungi. This is surprising because the year round hot and humid Malaysian tropical climate is very conducive for the colonization of mycotoxigenic fungi and the potential contamination with mycotoxins. This suggests that less focus has been made on the control of mycotoxigenic species in the genera Aspergillus, Fusarium, and Penicillium in Malaysia, despite the food security and health implications of exposure to the mycotoxins produced by these species. At present, there is limited research in Malaysia related to biological control of the key mycotoxins, especially aflatoxins, Fusarium-related mycotoxins, and ochratoxin A, in key food and feed chains. The expected threats of climate change, its impacts on both plant physiology and the proliferation of mycotoxigenic fungi, and the contamination of food and feed commodities with mycotoxins, including the discovery of masked mycotoxins, will pose significant new global challenges that will impact on mycotoxin management strategies in food and feed crops worldwide. Future research, especially in Malaysia, should urgently focus on these challenges to develop IPM strategies that include biological control for minimizing mycotoxins in economically important food and feed chains for the benefit of ensuring food safety and food security under climate change scenarios.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
  17. Soon JM
    J Food Prot, 2020 Mar 01;83(3):452-459.
    PMID: 32065648 DOI: 10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-19-415
    ABSTRACT: Social media offers numerous advantages for personal users and organizations to communicate, socialize, and market their products. When used correctly, social media is an effective tool to communicate and to share food safety news and good practices. However, there have been reports of fake food safety news shared via social media, fueling panic and resulting in a loss of revenue. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the consumers' awareness, trust, and usage of social media in communicating food safety news in Malaysia. A questionnaire divided into five sections-(i) demographics, (ii) reaction to food safety news, (iii) consumers' awareness, (iv) social media truth and level of trust, and (v) social media uses and content creation-was created and shared online. A total of 341 questionnaires were returned of which 339 surveys were valid. This study revealed that less than one-third of the study group (27.1%) knew which of the food safety news were fake. Most respondents (67.8%) were less likely to purchase the affected foods if the foods were featured in social media as problematic, although no differences were made between true and fake news and how that would influence respondents' willingness to purchase affected foods. Overall, 62% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed about the usage of social media and its ability to prevent food poisoning cases, while more than 50% of the respondents were in total agreement that social media allow consumers to act more responsibly by sharing food safety news. Respondents tended to trust information shared by scientists (67.5%) and family members and friends (33%). Respondents would most often share the news after verifying its authenticity (46%). If respondents experienced a personal food safety issue (e.g., discovered a fly in their meal), they seldom or never took photos to post online (56.1%). It is possible that the respondents preferred to inform the food handlers and/or shop owners about the affected products rather than post the photos online. It is suggested that targeted food safety information and media literacy be provided to improve consumers' awareness and to positively influence self-verification of the food safety information before sharing. This study provides crucial insights for a range of stakeholders, particularly public authorities, food bloggers, and the public, in using social media effectively to build consumers' awareness and trust in food safety information.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety*
  18. Khalil I, Yehye WA, Muhd Julkapli N, Sina AA, Rahmati S, Basirun WJ, et al.
    Analyst, 2020 Feb 17;145(4):1414-1426.
    PMID: 31845928 DOI: 10.1039/c9an02106j
    Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) DNA biosensing is an ultrasensitive, selective, and rapid detection technique with the ability to produce molecule-specific distinct fingerprint spectra. It supersedes the long amplicon based PCR assays, the fluorescence and spectroscopic techniques with their quenching and narrow spectral bandwidth, and the electrochemical detection techniques using multiplexing. However, the performance of the SERS DNA biosensor relies on the DNA probe length, platform composition, both the presence and position of Raman tags and the chosen sensing strategy. In this context, we herein report a SERS biosensor based on dual nanoplatforms with a uniquely designed Raman tag (ATTO Rho6G) intercalated short-length DNA probe for the sensitive detection of the pig species Sus scrofa. In the design of the signal probe (SP), a Raman tag was incorporated adjacent to the spacer arm, followed by a terminal thiol modifier, which consequently had a strong influence on the SERS signal enhancement. The detection strategy involves the probe-target DNA hybridization mediated coupling of the two platforms, i.e., the graphene oxide-gold nanorod (GO-AuNR) functionalized capture probe (CP) and SP-conjugated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), consequently enhancing the SERS intensity by both the electromagnetic hot spots generated at the junctions or interstices of the two platforms and the chemical enhancement between the AuNPs and the adsorbed intercalated Raman tag. This dual platform based SERS DNA biosensor exhibited outstanding sensitivity in detecting pork DNA with a limit of detection (LOD) of 100 aM validated with DNA extracted from a pork sample (LOD 1 fM). Moreover, the fabricated SERS biosensor showed outstanding selectivity and specificity for differentiating the DNA sequences of six closely related non-target species from the target DNA sequences with single and three nucleotide base-mismatches. Therefore, the developed short-length DNA linked dual platform based SERS biosensor could replace the less sensitive traditional methods of pork DNA detection and be adopted as a universal detection approach for the qualitative and quantitative detection of DNA from any source.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
  19. Lee YY, Tang TK, Phuah ET, Tan CP, Wang Y, Li Y, et al.
    Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr, 2020;60(15):2509-2525.
    PMID: 31418288 DOI: 10.1080/10408398.2019.1650001
    Diacylglycerol (DAG) is a world leading anti-obesity functional cooking oil synthesized via structural modification of conventional fats and oils. DAG exits in three stereoisomers namely sn-1,2-DAG, sn-1,3-DAG, and sn-2,3-DAG. DAG particularly sn-1,3-DAG demonstrated to have the potential in suppressing body fat accumulation and lowering postprandial serum triacylglycerol, cholesterol and glucose level. DAG also showed to improve bone health. This is attributed to DAG structure itself that caused it to absorb and digest via different metabolic pathway than conventional fats and oils. With its purported health benefits, many studies attempt to enzymatically or chemically synthesis DAG through various routes. DAG has also received wide attention as low calorie fat substitute and has been incorporated into various food matrixes. Despite being claimed as healthy cooking oil the safety of DAG still remained uncertain. DAG was banned from sale as it was found to contain probable carcinogen glycidol fatty acid esters. The article aims to provide a comprehensive and latest review of DAG emphasizing on its structure and properties, safety and regulation, process developments, metabolism and beneficial health attributes as well as its applications in the food industry.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety*
  20. Curren E, Leaw CP, Lim PT, Leong SCY
    Front Bioeng Biotechnol, 2020;8:562760.
    PMID: 33344429 DOI: 10.3389/fbioe.2020.562760
    Microplastic pollution is a global issue that has a detrimental impact on food safety. In marine environments, microplastics are a threat to marine organisms, as they are often the same size range as prey and are mistaken as food. Consumption of microplastics has led to the damage of digestive organs and a reduction in growth and reproductive output. In this study, microplastic pollution was assessed across three commercially available shrimp species that were obtained from the supermarkets of Singapore. A total of 93 individuals were studied from the Pacific white leg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei, the Argentine red shrimp Pleoticus muelleri and the Indian white shrimp Fenneropenaeus indicus. Microplastic fibers, fragments, film and spheres were identified from the digestive tract of these organisms. Microplastic abundance ranged from 13.4 to 7050 items. F. indicus exhibited the highest number of microplastics. Microplastic film was the most abundant in L. vannamei individuals (93-97%) and spheres were the most abundant in P. muelleri (70%) and F. indicus (61%) individuals. This study demonstrates that microplastic contamination is evident in commonly consumed shrimp and highlights the role of shrimp in the trophic transfer and accumulation of microplastics in seafood. The consumption of microplastic-containing seafood is a route of exposure to humans and has implications on human health and food security. Capsule: Microplastics were examined in three shrimp species from the supermarkets of Singapore. Microplastics ranged from 13.4 to 7050 items of shrimp.
    Matched MeSH terms: Food Safety
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