Multi-Contamination of Foods and Mixture Effects

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2023) | Viewed by 2252

Special Issue Editor

Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire, Université de Toulouse, 31000 Toulouse, France
Interests: impact of climate changes on fungal biodiversity; fungi and indoors; modulation of mycotoxin synthesis by natural compounds
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Special Issue Information

Dear colleagues,

Food contaminants are a major public health issue. The presence of pesticides, heavy metals, drug residues, mycotoxins, and many others can lead to various detrimental effects, depending on the structure and the behavior of these compounds in the organism. Moreover, the progress in analytical science has demonstrated that we are commonly exposed not only to one or a few contaminants but to a complex mixture, since our diet is made of different foods that can each be a source of different contaminants and since one food can often be contaminated with multiple components.

Risk assessment linked to food contaminants is therefore quite complicated since it requires knowledge of the nature and concentration of contaminants that can be encountered and the description of their possible effects when acting as a mixture.

This Special Issue of Applied Sciences aims to bring together new insights into the presence of food contaminants and their effects. A special focus will be placed on papers describing the multi-exposure to food contaminants as well as the effects of contaminant mixtures on health.

Prof. Jean-Denis Bailly
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • food contaminants
  • mixtures
  • health effects
  • multi-exposure

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

10 pages, 1674 KiB  
Article
Protozoa as the “Underdogs” for Microbiological Quality Evaluation of Fresh Vegetables
by Cláudia S. Marques, Susana Sousa, António Castro, Vânia Ferreira, Paula Teixeira and José M. Correia da Costa
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(14), 7145; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app12147145 - 15 Jul 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1660
Abstract
The monitoring of the microbial quality of fresh products in the industrial environment has mainly focused on bacterial indicators. Protozoa, such as Giardia duodenalis, Cryptosporidium spp., Toxoplasma gondii, and Cyclospora cayetanensis, are routinely excluded from detection and surveillance systems, despite [...] Read more.
The monitoring of the microbial quality of fresh products in the industrial environment has mainly focused on bacterial indicators. Protozoa, such as Giardia duodenalis, Cryptosporidium spp., Toxoplasma gondii, and Cyclospora cayetanensis, are routinely excluded from detection and surveillance systems, despite guidelines and regulations that support the need for tracking and monitoring these pathogens in fresh food products. Previous studies performed by our laboratory, within the scope of the SafeConsume project, clearly indicated that consumption of fresh produce may be a source of T. gondii, thus posing a risk for the contraction of toxoplasmosis for susceptible consumers. Therefore, preliminary work was performed in order to assess the microbiological quality of vegetables, highlighting not only bacteria (Escherichia. coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella spp.), but also the zoonotic protozoa G. duodenalis and Cryptosporidium spp. Although all samples were found to be acceptable based on bacteriological parameters, cysts of G. duodenalis and oocysts of Cryptosporidium spp. were observed in vegetables. Moreover, it was possible to genetically characterize G. duodenalis positive samples as assemblage A, a genotype that poses risks to human health. Although these are preliminary results, they highlight the need to include protozoa in the microbiological criteria for foodstuffs, as required by EU Law No. 1441/2007, and to improve inactivation and removal procedures of (oo)cysts in fresh produce and water. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Contamination of Foods and Mixture Effects)
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