Effect of high hydrostatic pressure treatments on volatiles of berry purées

High hydrostatic pressure (HHP) technology, as a promising alternative of thermal-treatment and chemical preservatives, can be used to produce minimally processed foods. It has the advantage of affecting only non-covalent bonds of macromolecules in foods, and thus preserves nutritional components, taste, and flavour exceptionally well. However, HHP also influences enzymatic reactions of food. Although some of these changes are often beneficial, monitoring the potential effects of high pressure treatments — especially in the field of product and technology development — is essential. The aim of this study was to point out some parameters of high hydrostatic pressure technique (pressure, temperature, build-up time, holding time, number of cycles) that can substantially impact the sensory properties of treated products

Consumers's Willingness to Pay for Avoiding Salmonella Infection

Salmonellosis is a widely known infectious disease in Hungary that played dominant role between 1960 and 1996 and remained one of the top food-borne illnesses to these days with an estimated total number of 96 048 cases (2019). Beside direct costs of treatment, indirect costs are also significant on the level of population. Among indirect costs, consumer well-being losses are difficult to be estimated. For this purpose, the willingness to pay (WTP) method is used most frequently that measures the cost an individual would undertake to avoid a certain harm. For the well-being loss estimation, the data of National Food Chain Safety Authority's annual consumer survey was used, in which 323 respondents gave evaluable answer to the open-ended WTP question. Results indicate that an average respondent would pay 18.6 EUR to avoid salmonellosis. Main factors affecting WTP were size of family and number of children. The numbers indicate that the consumer well-being loss could be about 1 786 060 EUR annually, resulting from the multiplication of the estimated number of annual salmonellosis cases and the average WTP value. It can be concluded that consumer well-being losses alone would call for further interventions in Salmonella eradication, not to mention other – more direct – cost elements

Enhanced heat resistance of Listeria innocua as a surrogate of Listeria monocytogenes after sublethal heat treatment

Abstract Its ability to survive under different environmental conditions makes Listeria monocytogenes a critical concern for food safety. When the microorganisms are exposed to sublethal heat treatment above their optimum growth temperature, they increase stress adaptation for further heat treatments. In order to investigate heat stress resistance of L. monocytogenes, L. innocua as a surrogate was exposed to sublethal heat at 46 °C for 30 and 60 min, prior to heat treatment at 60 °C. There was no significant difference in D60°C values between samples exposed to sublethal heat for 30 min and non-pre-heat-treated samples (control) (P > 0.05). In comparison, sublethal heat treatment for 60 min caused a significant increase in D60°C values compared to control samples (P < 0.05). Additionally, cluster analysis of mass spectra obtained from MALDI-TOF was analysed by discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) for sublethal heat treatment at 46 °C for 30 min and control group to check stress response at the proteomic level. However, differentiation of stress responses by distinct clusters was not revealing

Estimation of the occurrence of foodborne salmonellosis in Hungary

While in developed countries research findings are available on the estimation of the realistic number of different diseases and their economic impact at social level, in Central and Eastern European countries these country specific data are neither sufficient nor reliable. This study partially fills the gap and gives a picture of the real number of foodborne salmonellosis in Hungary. In the spring of 2017, a survey about diarrhoeal and foodborne diseases was conducted by interviewing 1001 adults (over the age of 18). Our survey showed that approximately 18 times more individuals are suffering from Salmonella infection than it is assumed under the national and international epidemiological database. Based on our estimation, the annual number of foodborne salmonellosis may range from 91 242 to 105 606 in Hungary. In this paper a methodology has been developed to estimate the true occurrence of this disease. Our results can be used to calculate the costs-benefit ratios of future salmonellosis prevention programmes and inform decision-makers on the effectiveness of Salmonella-related measures in the area of food safety