Fats and oils adulteration: present scenario and rapid detection techniques

Fats and oils are an essential part of everyday cooking as well as food products development and their purity are a concern since very early in human history. Adulteration of fats and oils is increased day by day throughout the world, a greater extent. Hence an attempt has been taken to review to identify different suitable rapid detection techniques for ensuring food quality and safety. The study was designed on the basis of extensive literature review for collecting relevant scientific evidence from various sources like Google Scholar, PubMed/Medline database, Science direct database, published journal, newspaper and periodicals. Various techniques have been utilized to assess the purity of edible fats and oils but yet they are costly and time-consuming. This study summarized the rapid detection techniques so that a common person can perform at the level of the household so as to have a broad picture of the status of adulteration in his food in case of doubt. Edible fats and oils are reported to be adulterated with other low-price oils. For example, mustard oil adulterated with argemone oil and butter yellow and ghee adulterated with vanaspati ghee. The leading challenges include the lack of market survey, lack of acceptance in the wholesale and retail market because of suspecting its purity, community health problem and decrease in consumer confidence.

Food Safety Audits

Food safety has gained global attention due to rising issues of food-borne illnesses, adulteration, and increased consumer awareness about food safety worldwide. It is a challenge for the governments and the food industry itself to maintain food safety throughout the food and supply chain. There are several systems and processes adopted by various countries to ensure food safety, and the food safety audits are one of the indispensable tools to achieve the goals of food quality and safety. Rising trends of consuming processed foods, eating out in restaurants and cafes, home deliveries of food from outside worldwide have made the auditing process very essential to ensure that the food products are being manufactured, stored, and sold in compliance with national and international standards. This chapter aims at providing an overview of the food audit processes, scope, importance, challenges, and future trends.

Food Microbial Hazards, Safety, and Quality Control

Food is any material or substance eaten or drunk to provide energy and nutrients for the body's growth, development, and maintenance. Food can be considered safe if it is free from all hazardous substances that can affect consumer health. Food safety issues can place a high burden of responsibility on traders, government bodies, and international organizations. This chapter covers the hazards, their types, foodborne diseases, and strategies to ensure food safety and quality. Different food quality and safety assurance programs are discussed as well like quality management systems, HACCP certification, ISO 9000 family, good manufacturing practices (GMP)/good hygiene practices (GHP), total quality management (TQM), good working practices (GWP), good lab practices (GLP), etc. Moreover, the role of some novel processing technologies is also focused on in this regard.

Assessment of Food Quality and Safety of Cultivated Macroalgae

Macroalgae aquaculture is 16 times larger than fish on a mass basis, making macroalgae by far the largest group of aquacultured products [...]

Environmental sources along natural cave ripening shape the microbiome and metabolome of artisanal blue-veined cheeses

Microorganisms colonising processing environments can significantly impact food quality and safety. Here we describe a detailed longitudinal study assessing the impact of cave ripening on the microbial succession and quality markers across different producers of blue-veined cheese. Both the producer and cave in which cheeses were ripened significantly influenced the cheese microbiome and metabolome. The cheese microbiome was significantly determined by the microbiome of caves, which were a source of Brevibacterium, Corynebacterium, Staphylococcus, Tetragenococcus and Yaniella, among others, as demonstrated through source tracking and the characterization of 613 metagenome assembled genomes. Tetragenococcus koreensis and T. halophilus were detected at high abundance in cheese for the first time, associated with the occurrence of various metabolites, and showed high levels of horizontal gene transfer with other members of the cheese microbiome. Overall, we demonstrated that processing environments can be a source of non-starter microorganisms of relevance to ripening of artisanal fermented foods.

Potential of Flow Cytometric Approaches for Rapid Microbial Detection and Chracterization in the Food Industry—A Review

As microbial contamination is persistent within the food and bioindustries and foodborne infections are still a significant cause of death, the detection, monitoring, and characterization of pathogens and spoilage microorganisms are of great importance. However, the current methods do not meet all relevant criteria. They either show (i) inadequate sensitivity, rapidity, and effectiveness; (ii) a high workload and time requirement; or (iii) difficulties in differentiating between viable and non-viable cells. Flow cytometry (FCM) represents an approach to overcome such limitations. Thus, this comprehensive literature review focuses on the potential of FCM and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for food and bioindustry applications. First, the principles of FCM and FISH and basic staining methods are discussed, and critical areas for microbial contamination, including abiotic and biotic surfaces, water, and air, are characterized. State-of-the-art non-specific FCM and specific FISH approaches are described, and their limitations are highlighted. One such limitation is the use of toxic and mutagenic fluorochromes and probes. Alternative staining and hybridization approaches are presented, along with other strategies to overcome the current challenges. Further research needs are outlined in order to make FCM and FISH even more suitable monitoring and detection tools for food quality and safety and environmental and clinical approaches.

Application of the Metabolomics Approach in Food Authentication

The authentication of food products is essential for food quality and safety. Authenticity assessments are important to ensure that the ingredients or contents of food products are legitimate and safe to consume. The metabolomics approach is an essential technique that can be utilized for authentication purposes. This study aimed to summarize food authentication through the metabolomics approach, to study the existing analytical methods, instruments, and statistical methods applied in food authentication, and to review some selected food commodities authenticated using metabolomics-based methods. Various databases, including Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, etc., were used to obtain previous research works relevant to the objectives. The review highlights the role of the metabolomics approach in food authenticity. The approach is technically implemented to ensure consumer protection through the strict inspection and enforcement of food labeling. Studies have shown that the study of metabolomics can ultimately detect adulterant(s) or ingredients that are added deliberately, thus compromising the authenticity or quality of food products. Overall, this review will provide information on the usefulness of metabolomics and the techniques associated with it in successful food authentication processes, which is currently a gap in research that can be further explored and improved.

Advances in traceability systems in agri-food supply chains

Failure to deliver safe and high-quality food reduces consumer confidence in the food industry and results in costly food crises, foodborne illnesses and disruption to food supply chains. Recent advances in traceability systems, and associated identification and communication technologies hold the potential to ensure food quality and safety by managing effective traceability throughout the food supply chains. However, deficits in various factors e.g., resources, awareness, training, standards, data management and technology scaling impede exploitation of these cutting-edge traceability technologies. This chapter provides a review of the advances in agri-food traceability systems and technologies, barriers to their implementations, and possible improvement pathways and policy interventions to promote deployment of advanced food traceability systems.