Proceedings

Release of metals from ceramic articles in contact with food: effects of simulant, pH, temperature, contact duration and migration times

Directive 84/500/EEC (a regulation which specifies migration limits of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) from ceramic articles intended to come into contact with food), is currently under revision by the European Commission, both for defining new Specific Migration Limits (SMLs) for Pb and Cd and for considering an extension to other elements, with validated testing methods. In this study, we investigated how much various parameters (nature of acid as simulants, pH, temperature, contact duration and repeated exposure) influence the release of metals from decorated ceramic articles during their use....

Phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis and its applications in the study of pesticides effects on soil microbial diversity

Phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) analysis is a robust method for characterizing the composition of soil microbial communities. This method has been used as a reliable measure of the soil microbial biomass and also for assessing the impact of agronomic practices, pesticide applications and heavy metal pollution on the structure of the soil microbial community. The variation of phospholipids between eukaryotes and prokaryotes and among many prokaryotic groups as well as their rapid degradation after cell death, make PLFAs very useful indicators of the living microbial community. An optimized...

Large scale multi-residue methods by gas and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for the determination of pesticide residues in food matrices

Nowadays, more than 1600 pesticides belonging to more than 100 chemical classes are in use worldwide for food production. In the EU, Regulation (EC) 396/2005 sets maximum pesticide residue limits in food (MRLs), the majority of which ranges over the concentration range 0.01-1 mg / kg. Large scale multi-residue methods based on general extraction procedures in combination with hyphenated instrumental analysis techniques such as gas and liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry are currently used in analytical laboratories working in the field of Pesticide Residues Analysis. In our...

Uncertainty evaluation of parameters used in LC-MS/MS system suitability for the determination of pesticide residues

Parameters used to assess LC-MS/MS system suitability for the determination of the concentration of pesticide residues in food are the retention time, the ion ratio, the signal to noise ratio and the slope of the calibration line. The EU tolerance values of the first two of these parameters have changed more than one time during the last years in the SANTE Document (last edition 11945/2015), they are differentiated from the respective tolerances mentioned in the Commission Decision 657/2002, and have been subject of debate. In the present study system suitability parameters of LC-MS/MS were...

Metabolic profiling of royal jelly as a tool for the characterization of royal jelly

Royal Jelly (RJ) represents a high value food commodity with recognized nutraceutical and pharmacological properties. The chemical composition of RJ has been studied by several researchers, however data available in the literature are highly variable due to the intrinsic variability of this bee product and the various analytical methods applied. In food science, metabolomics have recently risen as a tool for quality and safety of raw materials and final products. In this study a LC-MS/MS metabolite profiling method was developed and validated for the efficient separation and quantification...

A pilot study to explore the link between habitual diet and urinary biomarkers during pregnancy

The aim of this pilot study was to link habitual red meat consumption and protein intake to previously established urinary biomarkers, in a group of pregnant woman. Conventional chemical analyses and metabolomics were employed to assess the maternal urine fingerprint. The % of energy derived from meat intake was correlated with urea and creatinine levels, protein intake (g) with alanine and urea concentrations, while animal protein (g) with alanine levels. Maternal pre- pregnancy BMI was associated with alanine levels. There is a link between maternal dietary intake and urinary biomarkers.

A semi-automatic system for classifying and describing foods according to FoodEx2

In this paper, we present results of the evaluation of a semi-automatic system for classifying and describing foods according to FoodEx2 using datasets from three European countries. The proposed system is an integration of methods from machine learning, natural language processing and probability theory. It obtained an accuracy of 91% for the classification part and 78% for the description part. The usage of the system can be a link between food consumption and food composition data as the transformation from food intake into nutrient intake can be automatically made.

Development of the Guidelines for Assessment of Methods of Analysis (GAMA) – an online Wiki resource for food compilers and total diet studies

Analytical methodology has an important influence on data quality, butfood composition data compilersare often not experienced analysts, therefore detailed assessment criteria and guidance are required for the evaluation ofanalytical data from multiple sources. The ‘Guidelines for Assessment of Methods of Analysis (GAMA)’ werecompiled and presented as an online WIKI resource, covering comprehensive details on analytical methods for macronutrients, minerals, vitamins and trace elements, and madeavailable to users to support the EuroFIR data quality evaluation system and other food composition...

The development of FoodEXplorer – A EuroFIR data interchange tool for searching and retrieving multiple food composition databases (FCDB)

The EuroFIR eSearch facility prototype was built and tested during theEuroFIR NoE project (EU FP6) with a vision to connect pan-European food information, and was shown to be an excellent proof of concept for exchange of food composition data. A new and improved version of the web-based tool was subsequently developed, and renamed as FoodEXplorer.The functionality, user interface and underlying database for FoodEXplorerwere reconstructed and recoded with new features that were added to or improved from the prototype, includingimproved user interfaces and data downloads via the EuroFIR Food...

Expansion of the information included in Greek food composition tables: Contaminants, food additives, glycemic index, supplements & biodiversity