Background Plastic is convenient, lightweight, unbreakable and relatively inexpensive. However, there are both environmental and health risk from the widespread use of plastics. Bisphenol A, a chemical that mimics the action of the human hormone estrogen, can leach from polycarbonate plastic. Bisphenol A has been found to stimulate prostate cancer cells7 and causes breast tissue changes in mice...

Mycotoxin contamination of foods and animal feeds is a worldwide problem for human and animal health. Controlling mycotoxin contamination has drawn the attention of scientists and other food and feed stakeholders all over the world. Despite best efforts targeting field and storage preventive measures, environmental conditions can still lead to mycotoxin contamination. This raises a need for dev...

Efficient preparation of food samples, comprising sampling and homogenization, for microbiological testing is an essential, yet largely neglected, component of foodstuff control. Salmonella enterica spiked chicken breasts were used as a surface contamination model whereas salami and meat paste acted as models of inner-matrix contamination. A systematic comparison of different homogenization app...

Background: Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram-positive and facultative anaerobic food-borne bacterium which is capable of intra and extra cellular growth. L. monocytogenes usually can exist on different surfaces and instruments at production and processing sites of food products with animal origin. In Iran, the consumption of burger has increased recently, but its safety is still of great concer...

Background: Food borne illnesses and food poisoning are cause for concern globally. The diseases are often caused by food contamination with pathogenic bacteria due largely to poor sanitary habits or storage conditions. Objectives: Prevalence of some bacteria on cleaned and sanitised food contact surfaces from eight convenience food plants in Gauteng (South Africa) was investigated with the vie...

BACKGROUND What we eat simultaneously impacts our exposure to pathogens, allergens, and contaminants, our nutritional status and body composition, our risks for and the progression of chronic diseases, and other outcomes. Furthermore, what we eat is influenced by a complex web of drivers, including culture, politics, economics, and our built and natural environments. To date, public health init...

OBJECTIVES The objective of this article is to extend our previous studies of persistent organic pollutant (POP) contamination of U.S. food by measuring perfluorinated compounds (PFCs), organochlorine pesticides, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in composite food samples. This study is part of a larger study reported in two articles, the other of which reports levels of polybrominated diphe...

Humans and animals are exposed to aflatoxins, toxic carcinogenic fungal metabolites, through consumption of contaminated food and feed. Aspergillus flavus, the primary causal agent of crop aflatoxin contamination, is composed of phenotypically and genotypically diverse vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs). Molecular data suggest that VCGs largely behave as clones with certain VCGs exhibiting ...

A study of six child care centers was conducted to assess the microbiological quality of three food contact surfaces (one food serving surface and two food preparation surfaces) and one non-food contact surface (diaper changing surface) to determine the effectiveness of cleaning and sanitization procedures within the facilities. Aerobic plate counts (APCs) and Escherichia coli/coliform counts o...