1,721,010 research outputs found
Innovative molecular techniques to be applied on seafood identification, specifically NGS based techniques
No full textFood fraud has increasingly diffused due to the globalization and complexity of modern supply chains. Mislabeling - meaning false claims or distortion of the information reported on the label - is currentlythe preponderant form of food fraud. Seafood is
among the commodities at high risk of mislabelling.
The most common is the substitution of high-value with less expensive species or farmed versus wild sourcing, the selling of fish from illegal fishing, and the recycling of by-catches or fish waste. Potential consequences involve economic losses, ecological impact, undermining of sustainability efforts, mining religious or ethical reasons. In addition, the illicit presence of toxic species or the omission of ingredients potentially causing allergies (e. g. crustaceans or molluscs) may lead to human health risks. Food
authentication, being the process that verifies that a food matches its label description, is of great interest from a commercial, health and a legal point of view. Among the available methods, those based on DNA analysis continue to have a major place, and their use is also encouraged by EU legislation to deter operators from falsely labelling practices in the fishery sector. DNA barcoding has become a key player in maintaining the high-quality of foodstuff. Despite its advantages, the efficiency of the DNA barcoding is limited by the number of target species that can be simultaneously identified. In fact, it relies on Sanger sequencing – also known as first generation sequencing – a low-throughput method that produces partial output, showing only the dominant species and failing to identify the others. Therefore, the method can be critical when processed and complex foods potentially consisting of multiple species are
tested. This aspect might be particularly felt by FBOs since complex seafood products have currently won a large market share, following the diet habits of consumers that are increasingly addressed to ready-to-eat/ready-to-cook products. The Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies are high throughput methods able to simultaneously sequence all the DNA molecules, including those present in trace amounts. Differently to Sanger sequencing, where a single amplicon from a single species is amplified and a unique sequence is obtained, in this case 100% of the DNA contained in a sample can
be hypothetically amplified and sequenced each time, they are the most promising analytical tool for complex food authentication. However, differently from other investigation fields, its application in foodstuff is limited, mainly due to the lack of standardized protocols from the sampling to results interpretation. We performed a systematic review to answering the question “Is the metabarcoding ready to be applied to the authentication of foodstuff of animal origin?” and we observed that only 23 studies on this topic are available. Most of them did not apply proper quality control measures to prevent and avoid contamination that can distort the final data. Further investigation should be performed in order to define Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and harmonize protocols
Ethnic seafood products sold on the Italian market: labelling assessment and biological, chemical and physical risk characterization
Full text linkEthnic foods are nowadays increasingly consumed by Western citizens. However, deficiencies in traceability and poor hygiene conditions have been often reported for ethnic foods. In this study, seafood products (fish, crustaceans and seaweeds) purchased in Southern Italy from ethnic food stores were analysed to assess their labelling compliance with EU law (Regulation EU No 1169/2011 and Regulation EU No 1379/2013) and the presence of microbiological, chemical and physical hazards. Over 96% of the collected products were found as non-compliant with EU law on labelling. Regarding biological contamination, the quantification of enterococci (22.1% of the samples), moulds -including the potential aflatoxigenic Aspergillus flavus- (36.4% of samples) and the detection of Vibrio alginolyticus (7.8% of samples) should be emphasized. The presence of foreign bodies (physical contamination) in 18.2% of the samples highlighted the lack of targeted control systems. Overall, the major concerns arose from the chemical contamination related to the presence of variable percentages of metals derived from anthropogenic activities. This hazard was especially found in seaweeds products, which should be therefore better monitored throughout the food chain in order to protect public health. Outcomes from this study integrates the scarce data present in the literature and provide an overview of the major risks related to the consumption of ethnic seafood sold within EU market
Is the metabarcoding ripe enough to be applied to the authentication of foodstuff of animal origin? A systematic review
No full textMultiplex PCR per l’identificazione di specie tossiche della famiglia Gempylidae (Ruvettus pretiosus e Lepidocybium flavobrunneum)
No full textAbstract non disponibil
Jellyfish and Humans: Not Just Negative Interactions
No full textIn many coastal areas local increases in jellyfish populations are becoming recurrent phenomena due to climate change and several anthropogenic stressors, including eutrophication and pollution. Jellyfish blooms are often responsible for negative impacts on the marine environment and human activities: nevertheless, they can become a bioactive compounds. In addition, due to their high content of compounds with antioxidant activity and other different beneficial effects, jellyfish can be also successfully used for cosmetic, biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. Besides this, jellyfish could be exploited in other industrial sectors as crops fertilizer, biofuel or as additive in cement fabrication. In Southeastern Asian Countries, where jellyfish as food is a consolidated tradition, several hundred tons of jellyfish are caught per year. Recently, due to the development of jellyfish harvesting even outside Asia the estimated annual catch is rising. However, such official data seem to be dramatically underestimated. In addition, jellyfish breeding and aquaculture were developed with the aim to make jellyfish biomass available all year round. At least 20 different species of jellyfish are consumed by humans, the most appreciated belonging to the Rhizostomatidae family. Recently, some Mediterranean taxa such as Cotylorhiza and Aurelia spp., have received attention as sources of bioactive compounds or food resource. In Southeast Asia, jellyfish undergo a processing treatment that traditionally involves the use of alum salts, and are sold as salted (traditional product) or as "ready to eat" products. Currently, jellyfish-based products marketed in the EU within Chinese communities are affected by traceability issues, and mislabeling has been frequently reported. Moreover, jellyfish products may also present chemical hazards, due to alum salts in their processing. Therefore, a risk assessment procedure should be conducted to investigate the potential impacts on consumer's health and regulate their commercialization. Because of their nutritional and healthy properties, jellyfish have the potential to become an appreciated food by different consumers’ categories. Improving the processing methodologies will enlarge the jellyfish market to Western Countries turning jellyfish into a globally approved “novel food.
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Advances in the analysis of complex food matrices: Species identification in surimibased products using Next Generation Sequencing technologies
Full text link18 páginas, 4 tablas, 4 figuras.-- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.The Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies represent a turning point in the food inspection field, particularly for species identification in matrices composed of a blend of two or more species. In this study NGS technologies were applied by testing the usefulness of the Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine (PGM) in seafood traceability. Sixteen commercial surimi samples produced both in EU and non-EU countries were analysed. Libraries were prepared using a universal primer pair able to amplify a short 16SrRNA fragment from a wide range of fish and cephalopod species. The mislabelling rate of the samples was also evaluated. Overall, DNA from 13 families, 19 genera and 16 species of fish, and from 3 families, 3 genera and 3 species of cephalopods was found with the analysis. Samples produced in non-EU countries exhibited a higher variability in their composition. 37.5% of the surimi products were found to be mislabelled. Among them, 25% voluntary declared a species different from those identified and 25% (all produced in non-EU countries) did not report the presence of molluscs on the label, posing a potential health threat for allergic consumers. The use of vulnerable species was also proved. Although the protocol should be further optimized, PGM platform proved to be a useful tool for the analysis of complex, highly processed productsLABELFISH. ATLANTIC NETWORK ON GENETIC CONTROL OF FISH AND SEAFOOD LABELLING AND TRACEABILITY, funded by Atlantic Area Programme (INTERREG IVB) 2011-1/163 REF 1070134Peer reviewe
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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