Researchers the Department of Food Science of University of Manitoba, Canada, have developed bioactive edible films and coatings from the starch of yellow field peas to improve food quality and safety. The bioactive material delivery matrix is a neutral food-grade material that can contain or incorporate various kinds of bioactive parts.

One system that Dr. Jung Han developed is a wet pea starch gel coating for direct application to the surface of perishable foods in order to isolate the food from the environment and reduce microbial contamination. This starch coating layer contains natural preservatives, antibiotics or herbs and spice extracts that are antimicrobial agents. It kills harmful bacteria without changing the population of good bacteria, like lactic acid bacteria. Dr. Han has even developed a spray coating product that can be applied directly on chicken carcasses to prevent cross-contamination of micro-organisms. It can easily be applied with the inside-outside body washers currently used in the poultry industry. Also, a micro-encapsulation process using pea protein has been developed. The edible micro-encapsulation material can be used to protect -carotene and fish oils, as well as preserve flax seed oil for the health food industry. Furthermore, a biodegradable plastic has been developed using the pea starch.
Source: www.albertafarmexpress.ca

In the United States, Mr. Amer Abu Ghazaleh from Southern Illinois University-Carbondales College of Agricultural Sciences and Mr. Salam Ibrahim, a food microbiologist at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, have shown that the combination of certain bacteria and a common purple dye can reveal the presence of toxins in milk in just a few hours.

The team focused on bacteria that ferment lactose (milks sugars), producing lactic acid as they go. They began with a few bacterial strains they already had and cyanide. Experiments demonstrated that not only could the toxin slow or stop lactic acid production but this effect increased with the toxic load. Further, the effect appeared in under 4 hours. Researchers then added purple dye to samples containing both toxins and bacteria and to samples containing only bacteria. After 8 hours, dye in the non-toxic milk turned yellow, indicating the presence of increased lactic acid, while dye in the toxin-laden milk remained purple. However, the test does not identify what sort of toxin is in the milk, it only indicates that there is something wrong (like an alarm). With funding from the Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research, the study is being expanded to include a wider range of bacteria and toxins.
Source: news.siuc.edu

The Food Safety Department of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Germany, is working on the development of a rapid test for detecting allergenic substances in food. Within the framework of a project supported by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, analytical methods for official food control and the food industry that are capable of detecting the tiniest traces of allergens in food within minutes are to be developed by the beginning of 2012. At present, there are only two official methods to detect allergens in the laboratory and these are time-consuming and can only be carried out with the corresponding analytical devices.

One goal of the project coordinated by BfR is to develop a method in which extracts of the food to be examined are applied to a test strip to obtain results within 10 minutes, whether it contains an allergen and, if so, which one. The test can be done on-site. In addition, new modern analytical methods are being elaborated to reliably identify the genetic make-up of the allergenic substances even in highly processed food. Furthermore, the methods would be sensitive enough to detect allergens even in the parts per million (ppm) range.
Source: www.chemie.de

Researchers from the University of Arizona, the United States, have used cinnamaldehyde and carvacrol in edible apple-based film wraps for protection against Salmonella enterica, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes. Lead researcher Ms. Sadhana Ravishankar says, The use of edible antimicrobial films offers several consumer advantages, including prevention of moisture loss, control of dripping juices (which reduces cross contamination), and prevention of foreign odour pick-up as well as the reduction of rancidity and discoloration.

Carvacrol is the main ingredient of oregano oil, while cinnamaldehyde is the main ingredient of cinnamon oil. A study has revealed that carvacrol is a stronger antimicrobial agent against both Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 compared with cinnamaldehyde on chicken breasts at 4C. At 23C, the S. enterica population reductions were similar for both carvacrol and cinnamaldehyde but higher for carvacrol against E. coli O157:H7. Carvacrol was also a stronger antimicrobial agent against L. monocytogenes than cinnamaldehyde on ham at 4C and 23C. Further, the antimicrobials containing apple films were effective against the natural microflora present on raw chicken breast.
Source: www.medindia.net