Posts from the "Research News" category
Grants awarded to further collaboration with China
Four grants have been awarded under the New Zealand – China Food Safety & Security Roadmap to further develop scientific collaborations with China.
These include two travel grants and two workshop grants, and are expected to grow durable scientific collaborations between New Zealand and China, focused on the areas of food safety and security.
The Roadmap Advisory Committee has allocated $5,000 travel grants to Garry Hill and Yinqiu Wu from Plant & Food Research; and $20,000 workshop grants to Associate Professor Ravi Gooneratne’s team from Lincoln University and Associate Professor Yacine Hemar from the University of Auckland.
The five-year Roadmap operates under the framework of the China – New Zealand Strategic Research Alliance (SRA) established in 2010, and aims to create research opportunities, conduct research and deploy science outcomes into the marketplace. The Roadmap identified three areas of priority areas of cooperation – Food Safety and Security; Water Research; and Non-communicable Diseases. Plant & Food Research was chosen as the coordinating organisation for work in the Food Safety and Security priority area, and manages the grants on behalf of MBIE and their International Relationships Fund.
Source: www.plantandfood.co.nz
Dr Robyn McConchie’s Report of Day 2 at CPS Research Symposium, 27th June 2013
The CPS at the University of Davis has been very supportive of the initiatives in Australia to establish an affiliated Fresh Produce Safety Centre. Over the past year they have very generously shared their research outcomes, they have given presentations to our industry, and this year invited Australian researchers to apply for research grants to work collaboratively with US scientists on issues important for the Australian fruit and vegetable industry.
As part of the ongoing collaboration Dr Robyn McConchie from the University of Sydney was invited to take part in a panel session at the recent 2013 CPS Research Symposium held at Wegman’s Conference Centre in Rochester, NY State. Due to the increasing awareness and interest from the US industry, the Research Symposium was held over 2 days. To view a summary of Day 1 on Listeria and Composts please click here.
Click here to view the outcomes of projects from the second day on “Water Quality for Irrigation and Postharvest Practices”, “Pathogen transference: Pre-harvest, harvest and Packaging.” And “Hot Topics.”
New Research in Food safety at the 13th ASEAN Food Conference, Singapore 2013
The biennial ASEAN Food Conference is the leading forum for the food industry and research community in the region. The theme of the 13th ASEAN Food Conference held on the 9th-11th September 2013 in Singapore was “Meeting Future Food Demands: Security and Sustainability”.
Issues of malnutrition, undernutrition, and sustainable production were certainly important topics. However the themes were interpreted quite broadly to encompass, for example, how improvement in nutritional quality and food safety could benefit consumer health and community livelihoods, and help to address the alarming worldwide escalation in diet-related and lifestyle diseases. Sustainability was discussed less in terms of environmental impact, and more in terms of innovations in food processing, quality and safety to sustain long-term food industries.
The program included sessions on: managing innovation, nutrition & health, food chemistry & biochemistry, sensory science & consumer studies, food microbiology, food engineering, food processing, food product development, protein and weight management, food safety, food science and technology education, functional foods, nanotechnology of food, food analysis and quality assurance, and management of allergens in the food chain. The full program is available online, click here.
The conference was about food generally, but some interesting topics relevant to produce safety included:
Development of a fermentation process to produce a natural preservative called phenyllactic acid (PLA) from Lactobacillus plantarum bacteria. The PLA was shown to have antimicrobial activity against a variety of pathogens and extended the shelf-life of fresh-cut pineapple and bottled pineapple juice (Bui Kim Thuy, Nguyen Duy Lam, and Nguyen Thi Hoai Tram).
Development of a Surface Plasmon Resonance biosensor and sensor chips with antibodies specific to Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella Enteritidis, and Listeria monocytogenes. The biosensor is an experimental format that, if successful, would allow convenient simultaneous detection of target bacteria (Zhang Xiaoguang, Sachiko Tsuji, Ken-ichi Honjoh, and Takahisa Miyamoto).
Direct irradiation with LED has bactericidal effects on E. coli O157:H7, S. Typhimurium, and L. monocytogenes dependent on the pH of the medium and LED wavelength – blue is better than green! (Vinayak Ghate, Leong Ai Ling, and Yuk Hyun-Gyun).
Chitosan is a natural antimicrobial and antilisterial agent. Electron microscopy suggested that chitosan kills the bacteria by interfering with cell membrane permeability and causing leakage of cell contents (Juthamas Tantala, Titima Sukmark, Masubon Thongngam, Kanjana Thumanu, Pornchai Rachtanapun, Chitsiri Rachtanapun).
Establishment of a microbial risk assessment and food safety system for the Singapore retail sector by the National Environment Agency (NEA). The NEA is a government agency that has brought together regulatory activity and research to develop and deliver a risk-based inspection and education service. A unique feature of this relates to the cultural popularity of ready-to-eat food bought from stalls, which have special hygiene challenges (Ramona A Gutierrez and Ng Lee Ching).
Site visit to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore, which is the national food safety agency. Singapore imports 90% of its food from all over the world and has extremely well-resourced labs to test for chemical contaminants, additives and preservatives, drug residues, pesticide residues, food pathogens, foodborne parasites, physical quality, GMO, and other toxins. It also provides export certification, accreditation of food businesses, and food safety education; implements labelling and advertisement regulations and food recalls; and has a variety of roles relating to the animals and pet sector.
Check out who has pledged support for the Fresh Produce Safety Centre?
Thank you to the fresh fruit and vegetable industry for the great response and support for the establishment of the Fresh Produce Safety Centre. The FPSC in gaining momentum with over $125,000 in pledged funds!
These funds will be leveraged to apply for matched funding from the Australian government to develop the strategic plan of the Centre, the Constitution, the legal framework, the Board of Directors, and the R&D priorities as communicated to us by the fresh produce industry. The Centre will administer the following activities in food safety that will benefit the entire fresh produce industry:
securing and managing research funds,
leveraging research funding,
managing the industry-driven research projects,
maintaining the website,
providing education, communication and information
Number of severe E. coli strains grows
In addition to the better-known E. coli O157:H7, the group includes E. coli O26, O45, O111, O121, O130 and O145.
Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that as much as one-third of infections are caused by these other strains.
These strains are known scientifically as Shiga toxin-producing E. coli because they have the traits of one or both Shiga toxins.
Although some outbreaks of these nasty strains have been linked to fruits and vegetables, they are nearly always traced to warm-blooded animals, including birds, that have passed over or through farms.
To read the full article from The Grower, click here.
Emerging Pathogens: E. Coli O104:H4
A strain of E. coli known as O104:H4, made worldwide headlines when an outbreak in Germany in May 2011, sickened approximately 4,000 people and killed 50.
This event, linked to fresh sprouts, quickly became the deadliest foodborne illness outbreak in history.
It had evolved from a type of E. coli known to be harmless enteroaggregative E. coli and had acquired the genes to produce Shiga toxin from more virulent strains known as enterohemorrhagic E. coli.
Microbiological research laboratories around the globe began pooling resources to coordinate the world’s first “open source” analysis of a microbial genome. In turn, this spurred an unprecedented level of focused study by international collaborators that is still going on two years later.
Like other enteroaggregative E. coli strains, O104:H4 groups together in defensive brick patterns within a host’s intestines, inducing mucus production that both shields and feeds it. Combine that with the ability to produce Shiga toxin, and O104: H4 possesses the right cocktail of genes to become especially harmful in an outbreak.
To read the full article on Food Safety News, click here.
Report summarising the outcomes of 2012/13 of the FPS A&NZ
The FPS A&NZ have made available the final report summarising the outcomes from the project “A New Collaborative Paradigm for Fresh Produce Safety”. This project was funding by the University of Sydney and the Produce Marketing Association Australia and New Zealand (PMA A-NZ) with matched funding from the Australian Government, accessed through Horticulture Australia Limited.
You can download the report here and read about the outcomes of the many activities conducted in the year.
Know the bugs causing foodborne illness
Food Standards Australia & New Zealand (FSANZ) have released the second edition of “Agents of Foodborne illness” (June 2013).
This publication is intended for the food industry, food safety consultants and food regulators. It contains information about pathogens that cause foodborne illness, including bacteria, viruses, parasites and infectious prion particles. The sections contain information about:
growth and survival characteristics
symptoms of disease
virulence factors
epidemiological data including a summary of large, well-document outbreaks
occurrence in food
susceptible populations
dose-response relationship
This is an excellent resource to begin understanding what pathogens cause many of the foodborne illnesses. It contains a great deal of recommended readings for each of the areas covered.
download a copy of Agents of Foodborne illness (2nd Edition, 2013).
Researchers create rapid E.coli detector
A group of researchers at Canada’s University of Alberta have created a gadget they say can quickly detect the presence of E.coli bacteria in food. The test, which can be used at food-processing facilities, makes millions of copies of the genes in the meat being tested and provides results in under an hour. See the full article at Food Business Review (7/17)
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Brief Report: CPS Research Symposium Key Messages, part 1.
Brief Report, CPS Research Symposium 26 and 27th June 2013 ,Wegman’s Conference Centre Rochester, NY State.
The CPS at the University of Davis has been very supportive of the initiatives in Australia to establish an affiliated Fresh Produce Safety Centre. Over the past year they have very generously shared their research outcomes, they have given presentations to our industry, and this year invited Australian researchers to apply for research grants to work collaboratively with US scientists on issues important for the Australian fruit and vegetable industry.
Read Article →