Analysis & control - Articles and news items
Issue 2 2010 / 12 May 2010 / François Bourdichon, Food Safety Centre, Danone Corporate
Probiotics are used to bring health benefits to consumers through foods and are defined as “live micro-organisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host[Ref 18].” Commercialised all around the world since the early 1920’s, mostly focused on Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus genera, in the last fifteen years there has been a rising awareness reported in scientific literature on putative adverse events caused by strains belonging to this genera, if not adverse events supposedly caused by probiotic prophylaxis, e.g. the recent Dutch probiotic prophylaxis study on severe acute pancreatitis[Ref 6]. Saccharomyces boulardii is the sole probiotic yeast strain widely used nowadays, isolated from the fruit of litchi and mangosteen in Indochina in 1923. Marketed and evaluated as a drug, its use differs from other probiotic strains, considered as part of the food diet, with different efficacy and safety evaluation[Refs 20,25,45].
There is currently no firmly established regulation for the safety assessment of live micro-organisms added in food products as cultures or ingredients[Refs 34,37,41]. However, there are a number of guidelines, recommendations[Refs 2,7,18] and expert reviews on possible steps to document and validate the safety of live micro-organisms used in foods[Refs 8,10,33,42]. (more…)
Featured news / 23 March 2010 / Oxoid
Oxoid, a world leading microbiology brand, today announced the launch of Brilliance™ Staph 24 Agar – a selective and diagnostic chromogenic medium for the isolation and enumeration of coagulase-positive staphylococci (CPS) in foods, within 24 hours. (more…)
Featured news / 23 March 2010 / Oxoid
Oxoid has launched Brilliance™ CampyCount Agar, a new, highly selective, easy-to-read chromogenic medium specifically designed for the identification and enumeration of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli in poultry and related samples. (more…)
Issue 1 2010, Past issues / 22 February 2010 / Adrian J. Charlton, Food and Environment Research Agency, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
For many years, NMR spectroscopy was largely overlooked by the food industry. Maybe this was understandable. The instruments were expensive, the skills required to operate them could at best be described as specialist and there wasn’t a broad understanding of the way in which the technology could be applied within the industry. I joined the Food Science Group at Fera (then the Central Science Laboratory) in 1999. NMR spectroscopy was mainly used for measuring isotopes to check the authenticity of wines and fruit juice, whilst an archaic bench top contraption was used for fat and water measurements.
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Featured news / 2 February 2010 / Synbiosis
Synbiosis, a world-leading manufacturer of automated microbiological systems, is delighted to introduce ProcUV, its new UV imaging accessory for the ProtoCOL 2 system. ProcUV permits instant imaging of fluorescent colonies and plaques so they can be automatically counted or analysed by ProtoCOL 2, thus saving time and improving accuracy of results. (more…)
Issue 4 2009 / 12 December 2009 / Dirk Nikoleiski, Quality Manager, Kraft Foods R&D
Launching new products that require new process lines, a facility expansion or even a new plant at a new location are challenging and complex endeavours in the food industry. An example situation and flow might be as follows:
- The Marketing Department has an idea for a new product and request new product development
- R&D develops a new product and process to satisfy the Marketing request
- Engineering gets information from R&D and design and install new processing lines – all good so far!
- Manufacturing attempt a flawless start up to make product available for the new product introduction. Always flawless?
- Sanitation now gets involved to clean the line and are surprised at the difficulty and length of time it takes to clean the line. Manufacturing is concerned with this
- The Quality Department expresses concern that hygienic design is lacking and is requesting comprehensive and most likely expensive changes to newly installed equipment and infrastructure. Sound familiar? (more…)
Featured news / 3 December 2009 / Oxoid
Oxoid, a world leading microbiology brand, today announced that the DuPont Qualicon BAX® System Real-Time PCR Assay for Vibrios is now available alongside the Oxoid range in Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. (more…)
Featured news / 26 November 2009 / Neogen Europe
Neogen Europe has expanded its line of food allergen test kits to include a quantitative test for mustard. (more…)
Featured news / 6 November 2009 / Neogen Europe
Neogen Europe Ltd has introduced GeneQuence® Campylobacter, a new DNA hybridization test for the detection of Campylobacter spp. GeneQuence Campylobacter qualitatively detects Campylobacter spp. in whole chicken carcasses following only 48 hours of enrichment in patented Campy-Cefex culture media. (more…)
Featured news / 1 November 2009 / Neogen Europe
Neogen has developed a disposable membrane filtration system that utilises ampouled media to provide a complete solution to enumerate and detect a wide variety of microorganisms in liquid samples. (more…)
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