Posts from the "Research & Development" category
AU: Cassava: the staple crop that can kill you
Food Processing: Easy to cultivate and drought-tolerant, the cassava plant is eaten by a billion people around the world every day. But its popularity is also its weakness, as attacks by pests and diseases have a potentially huge impact on food security. It’s also the only staple crop that can kill you or cause chronic neurological disease if it’s not processed, potentially producing fatal levels of cyanide when drought-stressed.
Read Article →US: Study shows need to monitor microbial levels in dump tanks
Good Fruit Grower: The study by Seattle-based iDecisionSciences collected and examined dump tank monitoring data from five Washington apple packing houses to determine whether dump tank water preventive controls are controlling microbial levels and meeting requirements of the companies’ food safety plans. “We used microbial water testing data to establish how effective those preventive controls are during the course of normal packing operations,†said iDecisionSciences CEO Diane Wetherington.
Read Article →US: Study looks at lettuce grown near livestock
The Packer: Lettuce grown too close to livestock production areas can be at greater risk of pathogen contamination. That’s the conclusion of a recent study by scientists at New York’s Clarkson University, “Bioaerosol Deposition to Food Crops near Manure Application: Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment.â€
Read Article →SA: Microbiological food safety status of commercially produced tomatoes from production to marketing
Journal of Food Protection: Tomatoes have been implicated in various microbial disease outbreaks and are considered a potential vehicle for foodborne pathogens. Traceback studies mostly implicate contamination during production and/or processing. The microbiological quality of commercially produced tomatoes was thus investigated from the farm to market, focusing on the impact of contaminated irrigation and washing water, facility sanitation, and personal hygiene. A total of 905 samples were collected from three largescale commercial farms from 2012 through 2014.
Read Article →US: Research shows feedlot link to E. coli O157:H7 on leafy greens
Food Safety News: Current guidelines for the minimum distance between cattle feed lots and fresh produce growing fields are likely inadequate to ensure leafy greens are not contaminated with E. coli from dust and manure. “Additional research is needed to determine safe set-back distances between cattle feedlots and crop production that will reduce fresh produce contamination,†according to scientists who conducted a two-year study.
A two-year study at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center showed leafy greens planted well past the recommended minimum safety distance from a cattle feedlot were contaminated with E. coli from the dust and manure.
Read Article →UK: Research round-up: How can bacteriophages, turmeric and BARDOT ensure safe food?
Food Quality News: Research is a critical part of food safety. Many of the tools we have today have gone through much work before seeing the light of day. FQN takes a look at some recent work.
Read Article →US: Consumer definition of food safety expanded, study finds
Associations Now: Health and wellness, safety, social impact, experience, and transparency are all factors 51 percent of consumers weigh when determining which food items to purchase, according to a joint study from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), Food Marketing Institute (FMI), and consulting firm Deloitte. The study, “Capitalizing on the Shifting Consumer Food Value Equation,†found these new factors influence purchasing decisions in addition to traditional drivers like taste, price, and convenience.
Read Article →US: Bacteriophages: an old antibiotic alternative becomes new again
Food Safety News: The increasing global attention to the threat of antibiotic resistance has spurred research and development of antimicrobial alternatives. Once such alternative is bacteriophages.
Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and kill bacteria. There are thousands of different types and they are so abundant in the environment – an estimated 1030 live on the planet – that “we eat thousands of phages a day,†says Manan Sharma, a research microbiologist with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.
Read Article →US: Trials aim to shed light on wash-water disinfectants for mangoes
Center for Produce Safety: Several studies have been published that examine the interactions among water, disinfectants, organic matter and pathogens with various types of produce in packinghouse wash water. But there’s little, if any, published literature that examines those same interactions in a mango packing facility, said Mary Anne Amalaradjou, DVM, PhD, and an assistant professor of animal science at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.
And that’s what drove her to the project titled, “Impact of wash water disinfectants on Salmonella enterica transfer and survival in mango packing facility water tank operations.”
Read Article →AU: CSIRO/University of Tasmania Postgraduate Scholarship in Food Safety (3 available).
PhD Seek: Are you passionate about microbiology or food science? Apply now for a CSIRO/University of Tasmania Postgraduate Scholarship. Candidates will enrol at the University of Tasmania and undertake their PhD research with CSIRO.
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