Raw-egg based-foods consumption and food handling practices: a recipe for foodborne diseases among Romanian and Portuguese consumers

Salmonellosis is the second most common zoonosis in humans after campylobacteriosis. Eggs and egg products are the foods most commonly associated with Salmonella outbreaks. Also, inadequate hygiene practices performed by consumers at home contribute to the prevalence of foodborne diseases. The elderly, children, and pregnant women are the most vulnerable individuals. Thus, the objective of this study was to analyse Romanian and Portuguese consumers' self-reported consumption of raw-egg based-foods, food and hand hygiene practices, and to check if vulnerable consumer groups mediate the relationship between consumption of raw-egg based-foods and hygiene practices since they have weak immune systems. Significant correlations were found between the number of foodborne events and the number of Romanian and Portuguese consumers who did not report proper raw-egg handling and hand hygiene practices. An ordinary regression model indicated an increased consumption frequency of raw-egg based-foods reported by Romanian and Portuguese men, consumers aged 55 years. Structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated that there is a negative link between consumption frequency of raw-egg based-foods and food and hand hygiene practices for both Romanian and Portuguese consumers. Vulnerable consumers mediate the relationship between consumption frequency and hygiene practices, suggesting that Romanian families with elderly members and families with children dampened the negative relationship between consumption of raw-egg based-foods and self-reported hygiene practices, the contrary being observed Portuguese families with children and families from both countries with pregnant women. Recommendations for multi-faceted approaches regarding educational campaigns are made in order to improve consumers’ knowledge and food handling practices.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Hand hygiene practices during meal preparation-a ranking among ten European countries

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How new generation techniques are shaping the future of environmental sciences

This perspective highlights the role of new-generation analytical techniques in future applications in environmental sciences since the shift to the One Health research paradigm. It reviews the interactions between the compartments of One Health and indicates the current challenges in traditional environmental research. The term One Health was first used at the beginning of the 20th century, yet much is still needed for the cross-disciplinary research collaboration required in this approach

Pasteurised eggs - a food safety solution against Salmonella backed by sensorial analysis of dishes traditionally containing raw or undercooked eggs

This study evaluates the potential of pasteurised eggs to be used as a replacement for raw eggs in recipes where eggs remain uncooked or undercooked. Sensory tests were performed by 178 untrained panellists (143 from Portugal and 35 from Romania) using a 9-point hedonic scale. The tested recipes were tiramisu, chocolate mousse, eggnog, hollandaise sauce, and condensed milk mousse (Baba de camelo). While in Portugal the colour and texture of the chocolate mousse prepared with pasteurised and unpasteurised eggs differed significantly, no significant differences in regards to the organoleptic attributes were recorded in Romania. Nonetheless, the results revealed comparable distribution scores regarding the overall acceptability for all the recipes indicating an agreement among panellists for both raw and pasteurised eggs dishes in both countries. The regression analysis showed that the main drivers of consumers’ acceptance of dishes made with pasteurised eggs are flavour and texture. This research demonstrates that five dishes prepared with liquid pasteurised eggs are accepted by consumers as they cannot clearly be distinguished from their counterparts prepared with raw eggs. As Salmonella-contaminated eggs are the most frequent cause of salmonellosis, pasteurised eggs can be used as a safer ingredient to substitute shell eggs in raw egg-based dishes without significant reduction of the sensory quality of the dish. Since liquid pasteurised eggs are already widely used, especially by industry and restaurants, we provide reasons supporting pasteurisation of eggs in shell as a more convenient solution for consumers. Pasteurised eggs, either liquid or in shell, constitute a way to reduce the burden of foodborne diseases by diminishing the number of cases of salmonellosis associated with cooking at home. Researchers and food safety authorities can use our results as a starting point for future studies or intervention strategies.CC BY-NC-NDinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Data on European kitchen layouts belonging to vulnerable consumers (elderly people and young families with children or pregnant women) and risk-takers (young single men)

The data presented here capture the structure of kitchen lay- outs belonging to consumers vulnerable to foodborne dis- eases and food risk-takers. Data were collected in the frame of the SafeConsume project by multidisciplinary research teams that visited consumers during preparing a meal and had the possibility to examine their cooking routines. Dis- tances between sink and stove, sink and refrigerator, stove and refrigerator, sink and working place (countertop or ta- ble), stove and working place were analyzed to correlate food safety practices applied during cooking with kitchen arrange- ments. The results arising from analyzing the ergonomics of kitchens versus potential cross-contamination events are presented in Mihalache et al., [1]. These data contribute to a better understanding of real kitchen layouts and can be used as a starting point for future research regarding food safety-oriented arrangements instead of ergonomics-focused designs, for food safety risk assessments, as study cases for explaining specific measures that can be established to im- prove food handling and hygiene practices in homes and for sociological research pointing consumers’ behavior during cooking.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Kitchen layouts and consumers’ food hygiene practices: Ergonomics versus safety

Our paper emphasizes the importance of the kitchen layout in facilitating consumers' food hygiene practices. A significant correlation was found between the sink placement (inside or outside the kitchen) and hygienic practices during food handling based on a survey performed on consumers from ten European countries, indicating that those who had the sink in the kitchen were more likely to perform proper hygiene practices than those who have not. The self-reported practices were supported by observed practices in 64 households from five European countries. The observational study combined with the examination of kitchen layouts revealed that the kitchen work triangle with its apexes represented by the kitchen sink, cooking stove and refrigerator, which is recommended for ergonomic reasons by architects and designers, did not necessarily support food hygiene practices in kitchens. Cross-contamination events were associated with the sink – countertop distances longer than 1 m. Based on this, a new kitchen triangle with its apexes represented by the kitchen sink, working place (usually countertop) and cooking stove, with the distance between the sink and the working place less than 1 m is proposed to be used as norm in kitchen designs for combining ergonomics with safety. This triangle is proposedly named the food safety triangle and is aimed to mitigate the risks of foodborne illnesses by creating an arrangement that facilitates hygiene practices. This study is the first to highlight the importance of implementing the concept of food safety in the kitchen design based on significant correlations between kitchen equipment placement and consumers’ food safety practices.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Human health impact based on adult European consumers' dietary exposure to chemical contaminants and consumption of unprocessed red meat, processed meat, and legumes

<p>This dataset was generated within the PRISMA project (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 101110615) for assessing the health impact for adult consumers from 25 European countries due to dietary exposure to chemical contaminants and consumption of food based on different dietary patterns.</p><p>The risk coefficients used to generate data are presented in Table S1.</p><p>File S2 presents the health impact based on the chronic dietary exposure to chemical contaminants for each country.</p><p>File S3 presents figures regarding the health impact for each country for adult consumers due to dietary exposure to chemical contaminants and consumption of food based on different dietary patterns.</p><p>File S4 presents the health impact based on the consumption of unprocessed red meat, processed meat, and legumes for each country.</p><p> </p&gt

Food processing contaminants: Dietary exposure to 3-MCPD and glycidol and associated burden of disease for Italian consumers

: In this study we assessed Italian consumers' dietary exposure to 3-MCPD and glycidol followed by risk characterization, potential cancer risk and the associated burden of disease. Consumption data was retrieved from the most recent Italian Food Consumption Survey (2017-2020), while contamination data was obtained from the European Food Safety Authority. The level of risk due to exposure to 3-MCPD was negligible, below the tolerable daily intake (TDI), except for high consumption of infant formulas. For infants, the intake level was higher than the TDI (139-141% of TDI), indicating a potential health risk. Exposure to glycidol indicated a health concern for infants, toddlers, other children, and adolescents consuming infant formulas, plain cakes, chocolate spreads, processed cereals, biscuits, rusks, and cookies (margin of exposure (MOE) < 25,000). The risk of cancer due to exposure to glycidol was estimated and the overall health impact was quantified in Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). The risk of cancer due to chronic dietary exposure to glycidol was estimated at 0.08-0.52 cancer cases/year/100,000 individuals depending on the life stage and dietary habits in Italy. The burden of disease quantified in DALYs varied from 0.7 to 5.37 DALYs/year/100,000 individuals. It is crucial to continuously gather consumption and occurrence data for glycidol over time to track patterns, assess potential health risks, identify exposure sources, and develop effective countermeasures, as long-term exposure to chemical contaminants can lead to an increased risk for human health. This data is critical for protecting public health and reducing the likelihood of cancer and other health issues related to glycidol exposure

Occurrence of mycotoxins in meat alternatives: Dietary exposure, potential health risks, and burden of disease

This study aimed to present the occurrence of sixteen mycotoxins in 105 meat alternatives based on wheat, legumes, and vegetables from Italy. The targeted mycotoxins were aflatoxins (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, AFG2), fumonisins B1 and B2 (FB1, FB2), alternariol (AOH), alternariol monomethyl ether (AME), tentoxin (TEN), ochratoxin A (OTA), zearalenone (ZEN), T-2/HT-2 toxin, deoxynivalenol (DON), enniatin B (ENNB), and beauvericin (BEA). The occurrence of mycotoxins was between 0% (AFB2) – 97.4% (ENNB). Mycotoxin co-occurrence varied from binary combinations up to mixtures of twelve. To assess the dietary exposure and potential health risks we simulated the replacement of meat consumption for Italian consumers with meat alternatives. The cumulative exposure to Alternaria mycotoxins and trichothecenes indicated a potential health risk while the exposure to aflatoxins and ochratoxin A indicated a potential health concern related to liver and renal cancer in the model scenario. Moreover, we estimated the risk of liver cancer from exposure to AFB1 and quantified the potential burden using Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). Luckily, the potential risk of liver cancer was low between 0 and 0.05/100,000 individuals with an associated burden of disease of 0.83 DALYs/100,000 individuals. Taking into consideration the presence of meat alternatives on the food market and the ongoing shift towards plant-based diets there is a need for continuous monitoring to keep the occurrence at safe levels. More attention is needed from the regulatory side for policymakers to consider the legislations of mycotoxins in meat alternatives

Risk–benefit assessment of shifting from traditional meat‐based diets to alternative dietary patterns

Abstract The consumption of plant‐based meat alternatives has recently transitioned from the niche market to the mainstream. However, changing the dietary patterns may lead to new health challenges referred to possible higher exposure to natural toxins found in plant‐based food. The present project aimed to train the fellow in the field of chemical risk assessment and provide a comprehensive overview on how a change towards plant‐based meat alternatives may represent a driver for emerging risks. Thus, within the EU‐FORA programme the fellow engaged in the following activities: (i) perform a systematic review to analyse the distribution of natural toxins in the most common plant‐based meat alternatives in Europe, (ii) risk–benefit assessment of shifting from meat‐based diets to soy‐based meat alternatives by modelling the substitution of meat with soy, and (iii) determine the occurrence of mycotoxins in plant‐based meat alternatives from local markets in Parma, Italy. The fellow learnt the chemical risk assessment procedures applied by the researchers from the Department of Food and Drug of Parma University, thus gaining an in‐depth expertise in all the steps. A risk–benefit assessment was performed modelling the intake of aflatoxin B1‐contaminated soy‐based meat analogues. The health impact due to intake of soy and exposure to aflatoxin B1 was estimated. Within the research group, the fellow also worked on developing a multi‐mycotoxin determination method for plant‐based meat alternatives matrices. The results of the project provide a picture reflecting the occurrence of natural toxins in plant‐based meat alternatives and the need of upgraded regulation frameworks that take into account new products and dietary patterns. The EU‐FORA fellowship was a great opportunity for the fellow to expand his professional network and increase his expertise in food safety by gaining new skills in chemical risk assessment, risk–benefit assessment and analytical chemistry