Background: Low vitamin D (vit D) serum levels have been linked to various diseases such as multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. Maintenance of optimal vit D level should be supported by foods and supplements. Limited food sources of vit D made researchers focus on food fortification in recent years. Methods: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials reporting th...

Stable isotope signatures of primary producers display high interand intraspecific variation. This is assigned to species-specific differences in isotope fractionation and variable abiotic conditions, e.g., temperature, and nutrient and light availability. As consumers reflect the isotopic signature of their food source, such variations have direct impacts on the ecological interpretation of st...

A rapid method for the detection of Listeria monocytogenes in foods combining culture enrichment and real-time PCR was compared to the ISO 11290-1 standard method. The culture enrichment component of the rapid method is based on the ISO standard and includes 24h incubation in half-Fraser broth, 4h incubation in Fraser broth followed by DNA extraction and real-time PCR detection of the ssrA gene...

Some laboratory mice gnaw food pellets without ingesting much of the gnawed material, resulting in the production of waste material called 'orts'. The fact that this food grinding behavior is not seen in all individuals of a particular strain suggests that it might be abnormal, and thus indicate a welfare concern. Furthermore, the increased rate of feed consumption and cage soiling is undesirab...

A total of 270 samples, nine lots of 30 samples each, of imported Moroccan food snails was examined for the presence of Salmonella. Eighty-four samples (an overall incidence of 31.11%) and all nine lots contained Salmonella. No significant difference (P greater than 0.25) in the number of positive samples was observed by using either selenite cystine both or tetrathionate broth when the samples...