Aspects of high hydrostatic pressure food processing: Perspectives on technology and food safety

The last two decades saw a steady increase of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) used for treatment of foods. Although the science of biomaterials exposed to high pressure started more than a century ago, there still seem to be a number of unanswered questions regarding safety of foods processed using HHP. This review gives an overview on historical development and fundamental aspects of HHP, as well as on potential risks associated with HHP food applications based on available literature. Beside the combination of pressure and temperature, as major factors impacting inactivation of vegetative bacterial cells, bacterial endospores, viruses, and parasites, factors, such as food matrix, water content, presence of dissolved substances, and pH value, also have significant influence on their inactivation by pressure. As a result, pressure treatment of foods should be considered for specific food groups and in accordance with their specific chemical and physical properties. The pressure necessary for inactivation of viruses is in many instances slightly lower than that for vegetative bacterial cells; however, data for food relevant human virus types are missing due to the lack of methods for determining their infectivity. Parasites can be inactivated by comparatively lower pressure than vegetative bacterial cells. The degrees to which chemical reactions progress under pressure treatments are different to those of conventional thermal processes, for example, HHP leads to lower amounts of acrylamide and furan. Additionally, the formation of new unknown or unexpected substances has not yet been observed. To date, no safety-relevant chemical changes have been described for foods treated by HHP. Based on existing sensitization to non-HHP-treated food, the allergenic potential of HHP-treated food is more likely to be equivalent to untreated food. Initial findings on changes in packaging materials under HHP have not yet been adequately supported by scientific data

High Depressive Symptoms in Previously Undetected Diabetes : 10-Year Follow-Up Results of the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study

Aim: To determine the 10-year cumulative incidence of high depressive symptoms in people with diagnosed and, in particular, previously undetected diabetes compared to those without diabetes in a population-based cohort study in Germany. Materials and Methods: We included 2813 participants (52.9% men, mean age (SD) 58.9 (7.7) years, 7.1% diagnosed diabetes, 5.6% previously undetected diabetes) from the Heinz Nixdorf Recall study. We calculated the odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) using multiple logistic regression analyses for diagnosed and undetected diabetes. Results: Cumulative 10-year incidences (95%-CI) of high depressive symptoms in participants with diagnosed diabetes, previously undetected diabetes, and without diabetes were 15.4% (10.7– 21.2), 10.1% (5.9– 15.9), and 12.4% (11.1– 13.8), respectively. Age-sex-adjusted ORs were 1.51 (1.01– 2.28) in participants with diagnosed diabetes compared to those without, 1.40 (0.92– 2.12) after adjustment for BMI, physical activity, education, and smoking, and 1.33 (0.87– 2.02) after further adjustment for stroke and myocardial infarction. ORs in participants with previously undetected diabetes were 0.96 (0.56– 1.65), 0.85 (0.49– 1.47), and 0.85 (0.49– 1.48), respectively, and lower in men than in women. Conclusion: As expected, we found an increased odds of developing high depressive symptoms in participants with diagnosed diabetes. However, the odds ratios decreased when we considered comorbidities and other covariates. Interestingly, in participants with previously undetected diabetes, the odds was not increased, even 10 years after detection of diabetes. These results support the hypothesis that high depressive symptoms develop due to diabetes-related burdens and comorbidities and not due to hyperglycemia or hyperinsulinemia

Safety assessment of the substance (butadiene, styrene, methyl methacrylate, butyl acrylate) copolymer cross-linked with divinylbenzene or 1,3-butanediol dimethacrylate for use in food contact materials

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Safety assessment of the process ‘EREMA Recycling (MPR, Basic and Advanced technologies)’, used to recycle post-consumer PET into food contact materials

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Safety assessment of the substance phosphorous acid, mixed 2,4-bis(1,1-dimethylpropyl)phenyl and 4-(1,1-dimethylpropyl)phenyl triesters for use in food contact materials

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Safety assessment of the mixture of methyl-branched and linear C14–C18 alkanamides, derived from fatty acids, for use in food contact materials

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Safety assessment of the process ‘PEGRA-V’, based on Starlinger IV+® technology, used to recycle post-consumer PET into food contact materials

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Safety assessment of the substance dimethyl carbonate for use in food contact materials

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Safety assessment of the process ‘Plastienvase’, based on EREMA Basic technology, used to recycle post-consumer PET into food contact materials

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Open Questions in Cosmic-Ray Research at Ultrahigh Energies

International audienceWe review open questions and prospects for progress in ultrahigh-energy cosmicray (UHECR) research, based on a series of discussions that took place during the “The High-Energy Universe: Gamma-Ray, Neutrino, and Cosmic-ray Astronomy” MIAPP workshop in 2018.Specifically, we overview open questions on the origin of the bulk of UHECRs, the UHECR mass composition, the origin of the end of the cosmic-ray spectrum, the transition from Galactic to extragalactic cosmic-rays, the effect of magnetic fields on thetrajectories of UHECRs, anisotropy expectations for specific astrophysical scenarios, hadronicinteractions, and prospects for discovering neutral particles as well as new physics at ultrahighenergies. We also briefly overview upcoming and proposed UHECR experiments and discusstheir projected science reach