Microencapsulation of Fe2+ in Spray-Dried Lactose for Improved Bioavailability

The development of spray drying technology has been widely used for drying and preservation of food products. Though infant milk powder iron fortification is necessary for infants and children, iron fortification is accompanied by some limitations that reduce its quality and oxidation of Fe2+ into Fe3+, causing sensory problems and even a decrease in iron absorption, which does not meet the normal requirements of infant and child body development. To overcome this adverse effect and to improve the bioavailability of iron, a spray drying method was used to simulate the milk powder production process by codrying a mixture of ascorbic acid and ferrous sulfate, where ascorbic acid was uniformly coated on the outer layer of ferrous sulfate. It was demonstrated that ascorbic acid had a very obvious inhibitory effect on the oxidation of ferrous iron and could maintain the stability of ferrous iron in solid and solution for a long time, thus improving the bioavailability of iron.

The Influence Mechanism of Reputation Information on the Formation of Safety Trust in Chinese Infant Milk Powder

Infant milk powder has always been one of the food categories most sensitive to safety reputation information. The safety reputation of Chinese infant milk powder has been seriously damaged due to the occurrence of safety accidents and the resulting consumers’ still-unrestored confidence is an important factor which restricts the dairy industry revitalization. Therefore, this paper analyzes the impact of reputation information on the formation of safety trust in Chinese infant milk powder, taking reputation information transmission as the starting point and consumer psychological perception as the researching perspective. A questionnaire survey was conducted and 685 valid questionnaires were collected. The structural equation model is adopted to verify the theoretical model and corresponding research hypothesis that reputation information affects the safety trust of Chinese infant milk powder. The reputation information transmitted between relatives and friends has a stronger effect on the formation of safety trust in Chinese infant milk powder than the media. The degree of media pursuit of “news effect” and negative word-of-mouth have a significant negative impact on the formation of safety trust in Chinese infant milk powder, while reputation quality, positive word-of-mouth and relationship strength have a significant positive impact on that. The quality of word-of-mouth perceived by consumers from highly involvement group, rational group, urban group and high-educated group has a stronger influence on the formation of safety trust. The degree of media pursuit of “news effect”, positive word-of-mouth, negative word-of-mouth and relationship strength perceived by consumers from low involvement group, emotional group, rural group and low-educated group have stronger influence on the formation of safety trust.

A Novel Graphene Oxide-Based Aptasensor for Amplified Fluorescent Detection of Aflatoxin M1 in Milk Powder

In this paper, a rapid and sensitive fluorescent aptasensor for the detection of aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in milk powder was developed. Graphene oxide (GO) was employed to quench the fluorescence of a carboxyfluorescein-labelled aptamer and protect the aptamer from nuclease cleavage. Upon the addition of AFM1, the formation of an AFM1/aptamer complex resulted in the aptamer detaching from the surface of GO, followed by the aptamer cleavage by DNase I and the release of the target AFM1 for a new cycle, which led to great signal amplification and high sensitivity. Under optimized conditions, the GO-based detection of the aptasensor exhibited a linear response to AFM1 levels in a dynamic range from 0.2 to 10 μg/kg, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.05 μg/kg. Moreover, the developed aptasensor showed a high specificity towards AFM1 without interference from other mycotoxins. In addition, the technique was successfully applied for the detection of AFM1 in infant milk powder samples. The aptasensor proposed here offers a promising technology for food safety monitoring and can be extended to various targets.

Survey of Octylphenol, Nonylphenol, and Bisphenol A in Infant Milk Powders by Solid-Phase Extraction Combined GC/MS Method

A detection method for 3 kinds of phenolic compounds of endocrine disruptors (4-nonylphenol, 4-octylphenol, and bisphenol A) in infant milk powders by solid-phase extraction combined GC-MS was established. This method can effectively remove interference materials from infant milk powder products. The limit of detection and the limit of quantitation of the 3 kinds of compounds were 0.8 μg/kg and 2.5 μg/kg, respectively, with the relative standard deviations of 4.3–12.1%. The recovery rates of 4-nonylphenol, 4-octylphenol, and bisphenol A were of 68.5–89.2%, 64.8–87.0%, and 97.8–110.0%, respectively. Concentrations of the bisphenol A were from 0.8 to 14 μg/kg in 35 samples of the total 60 samples. And the other two compounds of 4-nonylphenol and 4-octylphenol were not found in all the 60 samples tested. The established method is simple, rapid, accurate, and highly sensitive, and the pollution of endocrine disruptors in some infant milk powders products was detectable in trace amounts.