Trends in product recalls within the agri-food industry:Empirical evidence from the USA, UK and the Republic of Ireland

The increasing frequency of product recalls within the agri-food industry has led many to question food safety. Research studies also often focus on biological hazards without considering how past, present and emerging risks change over time. We undertake a systematic review of the different biological, operational and chemical hazards within the agri-food industry using a dataset of 2070 registered food recalls in the USA, UK and Republic of Ireland between 2004 and 2010. We show product recalls have become more frequent over time and operational hazards, rather than biological and chemical hazards, are the most frequent recall type within the agri-food industry. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Efficacy of Biocides Used in the Modern Food Industry To Control Salmonella enterica, and Links between Biocide Tolerance and Resistance to Clinically Relevant Antimicrobial Compounds

Biocides play an essential role in limiting the spread of infectious disease. The food industry is dependent on these agents, and their increasing use is a matter for concern. Specifically, the emergence of bacteria demonstrating increased tolerance to biocides, coupled with the potential for the development of a phenotype of cross-resistance to clinically important antimicrobial compounds, needs to be assessed. In this study, we investigated the tolerance of a collection of susceptible and multidrug-resistant (MDR) Salmonella enterica strains to a panel of seven commercially available food-grade biocide formulations. We explored their abilities to adapt to these formulations and their active biocidal agents, i.e., triclosan, chlorhexidine, hydrogen peroxide, and benzalkonium chloride, after sequential rounds of in vitro selection. Finally, cross-tolerance of different categories of biocidal formulations, their active agents, and the potential for coselection of resistance to clinically important antibiotics were investigated. Six of seven food-grade biocide formulations were bactericidal at their recommended working concentrations. All showed a reduced activity against both surface-dried and biofilm cultures. A stable phenotype of tolerance to biocide formulations could not be selected. Upon exposure of Salmonella strains to an active biocidal compound, a high-level of tolerance was selected for a number of Salmonella serotypes. No cross-tolerance to the different biocidal agents or food-grade biocide formulations was observed. Most tolerant isolates displayed changes in their patterns of susceptibility to antimicrobial compounds. Food industry biocides are effective against planktonic Salmonella. When exposed to sublethal concentrations of individual active biocidal agents, tolerant isolates may emerge. This emergence was associated with changes in antimicrobial susceptibilities.

Implications of nanotechnology for the agri-food industry: Opportunities, benefits and risks

Nanotechnology has emerged as a technological advancement that could develop and transform the entire agri-food sector, with the potential to increase agricultural productivity, food security and economic growth for industries. Though as still a relatively new concept there are concerns over its safety, regulation and acceptance by the industry and consumers. This review set out to address the implications of nanotechnology for the agri-food industry by examining the potential benefits, risks and opportunities. Existing scientific gaps in knowledge are believed to be a prohibitive factor in addition to uncertainties in the level of awareness and attitudes towards the use of nanotechnology by the industry.

Environmental Operations Management and its links with Proactivity and Performance: A study of the UK Food Industry

Two important strands of research within the literature on Environmental Operations Management (EOM) relate to environmental approach and performance. Often in this research the links between environmental approach, environmental performance and EOM are considered separately with little consideration given to the interrelationships between them. This study develops and tests a theoretical framework that combines these two strands to explore how UK food manufacturers approach EOM. The framework considers the relationships between an environmentally pro-active strategic orientation, EOM and environmental and cost performance. A cross-sectional survey was developed to collect data from a sample of 1200 food manufacturing firms located within the UK. Responses were sought from production and operations managers who are knowledgeable about the environmental operations practices within their firms. A total of 149 complete and useable responses were obtained. The reliability and validity of the scales used in the survey were tested using exploratory factor analysis, prior to the testing of the hypotheses underpinning the theoretical framework using hierarchical regression analysis. Our results generate support for a link between environmental proactivity, environmental practices and performance, consistent with the natural resource-based view (NRBV) and a number of studies in the extant literature. In considering environmental proactivity as a standalone concept that influences the implementation of environmental practices outlined in the NRBV, our study generates some novel insights into these links. Further our results provide some interesting insights for managers within the food industry who can identify the potential benefits of certain practices for performance within this unique context.

The Farm-Retail Price Spread in an Imperfectly Competitive Food Industry

Gardner's popular model of perfect competition in the marketing sector is extended to a conjectural-variations oligopoly with endogenous entry. Revising Gardner's comparative statics on the "farm-retail price ratio," tests of hypotheses about food industry conduct are derived. Using data from a recent article by Wohlgenant, which employs Gardner's framework, tests are made of the validity of his maintained hypothesis-that the food industries are perfectly competitive. No evidence is found of departures from competition in the output markets of the food industries of eight commodity groups: (a) beef and veal, (b) pork, (c) poultry, (d) eggs, (e) dairy, (f) processed fruits and vegetables, (g) fresh fruit, and (h) fresh vegetables.

Delivering high-level food industry skills for future food security through Advanced Training Partnerships

The UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s Advanced Training Partnerships initiative represents a significant investment in the provision of high-level skills for the UK food industry sector to address global food security from farm to fork. This paper summarises the background, aims and scope of the Advanced Training Partnerships, their development so far, and offers a view on future directions and evaluation of impact.

Biosurfactants in food industry

The increasing environmental concern about chemical surfactants triggers attention to microbial-derived surface-active compounds essentially due to their low toxicity and biodegradable nature. At present, biosurfactants are predominantly used in remediation of pollutants; however, they show potential applications in many sectors of food industry. Associated with emulsion forming and stabilization, antiadhesive and antimicrobial activities are some properties of biosurfactants, which could be explored in food processing and formulation. Potential applications of microbial surfactants in food area and the use of agroindustrial wastes as alternative substrates for their production are discussed.

New starches for the food industry: Curcuma longa and Curcuma zedoaria

The evolution of the food sector has increased interest in the identification of new starches with distinct properties. Curcuma longa and Curcuma zedoaria rhizomes, which are already used in industry to obtain food coloring and pharmaceutical products, may become commercially interesting as starch raw materials. This work aimed to characterize the starch of two Curcuma species. The results revealed that the rhizomes of two species showed low dry matter and high starch contents. The amylose contents of the starches (22% C. longa and 21% C. zedoaria) were similar to potato starch. The results of microscopic analysis showed flat triangular shape and the size was 20-30 mum for two starches. The final viscosity of C longa was high (740 RVU) and the pasting temperature was 81 degreesC. In C. zedoaria the final viscosity was 427 RVU and the pasting temperature was 78 degreesC. These results differed from standard commercially used natural starches. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Application of methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris in the field of food industry - A review

Since ancient times, the utilization of yeasts by the man has a great impact on the socio-economic development. After the advent of the technology of recombinant DNA, great advances have occurred due to the acquisition of strains of mutant yeasts in the field of applied research, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae has soon been outstanding as an interesting candidate for the expression of heterologous proteins of biotechnological interest. As the time goes by other alternative systems of expression have been shown because they have advantages over Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Among those new systems, Pichia pastoris is outstanding as methylotrophic yeast capable of growing in a culture medium containing methanol as the only source of carbon and energy. The induction of production of glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPD, NAD(+): oxido-redutase EC 1.1. 1.8) by Pichia pastoris was accomplished in the medium containing methanol. One of the most important key parameters in Pichia pastoris expression system is the methanol concentration. Bibliographic reviews on the Pichia pastoris production system have shown that the best culture conditions vary according to the strain used and/or kind of heterologous protein desired to be expressed. Therefore, we have sought to develop a system, involving expression of glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase in the yeast Pichia pastoris, for generating sufficient quantities of the enzyme in order to asses its potential value for use in various food bioanalytical determination. Dehydrogenases have been widely used in the enzymatic assays of diverse composites of industrial interest, being enclosed among them glycerol and a number of important bioanalytical applications.

Biohydrogen production from food industry waste by suspended and immobilized thermophylic bacteria

This work describes hydrogen production by anaerobic digestion of glucose, molasses and milk whey by 4 thermophilic Thermotoga strains. In the attached-cell tests, the biofilm support characterized by the highest specific surface resulted in the best H2 rate. All the Thermotoga strains examined (T. neapolitana, T. maritima, T. naphtophila, T. petrophila) could produce H2 from glucose, molasses and milk whey, both in suspended- and attached-cell tests. With all the three substrates, the best performances were obtained with T. neapolitana. Some tests were conducted out to select the optimal carrier for the attached-cell conditions. 4 types of carrier were tested: 3 sintered glass carriers and a ceramic one; the chosen carrier was Biomax.

Applications of infrared thermography in the food industry

In the last 20-30 years, the implementation of new technologies from the research centres to the food industry process was very fast. The infrared thermography is a tool used in many fields, including agriculture and food science technology, because of it's important qualities like non-destructive method, it is fast, it is accurate, it is repeatable and economical. Almost all the industrial food processors have to use the thermal process to obtain an optimal product respecting the quality and safety standards. The control of temperature of food products during the production, transportation, storage and sales is an essential process in the food industry network. This tool can minimize the human error during the control of heat operation, and reduce the costs with personal. In this thesis the application of infrared thermography (IRT) was studies for different products that need a thermal process during the food processing. The background of thermography was presented, and also some of its applications in food industry, with the benefits and limits of applicability. The measurement of the temperature of the egg shell during the heat treatment in natural convection and with hot-air treatment was compared with the calculated temperatures obtained by a simplified finite element model made in the past. The complete process shown a good results between calculated and observed temperatures and we can say that this technique can be useful to control the heat treatments for decontamination of egg using the infrared thermography. Other important application of IRT was to determine the evolution of emissivity of potato raw during the freezing process and the control non-destructive control of this process. We can conclude that the IRT can represent a real option for the control of thermal process from the food industry, but more researches on various products are necessary.