Quantification of multiple adulterants in beef protein powder by FT-NIR

With its adverse effects on the health of consumers and the global economy, food adulteration is considered to be one of the pressing issues of our times. Beef Protein powders (BPP) are particularly among the most fraud-prone products mainly due to their ever-growing consumption. For the purpose of our study, FT-NIR spectroscopy was applied to quantify four commonly used adulterants: Melamine (M), Urea (U), Glycine (G) and Taurine (T) in BPP. Analysis with chemometric tools proved the efficiency of the aforementioned technique as a rapid nondestructive analytical tool for the detection of Beef protein powder adulteration

Spectroscopy as a rapid detecting paprika powder adulteration

Paprika powder, a spice known for imparting flavour, colour and aroma in foods has recently become compromised by fraudulent activities involving diverse adulterants such as corn flour and has prompted quality assurance (QA) measures. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a non-destructive method gaining grounds in QA applications. The study applied NIRS to detect paprika powder adulterated with corn flour. Chemometric evaluation spectra showed that NIRS could discriminate cornflour adulteration with 100% classification accuracy. Adulteration was also predicted with high accuracies coefficient of determination (R2CV) between 0.97 and 0.99 and low errors (0.72 g/100g), proving the future QA applications of NIRS

Assessment of biofilm formation of Listeria monocytogenes strains

Biofilm formation of four Listeria monocytogenes strains with different origin was compared as a function of surface material (stainless steel, polystyrene and glass) and surface conditioning. Hydrophobicity of strains was also examined. The number of adhered cells in PBS broth was determined for all strains during 144 h of incubation at 30 °C with epifluorescent microscopy. L. monocytogenes strains were similar in biofilm forming abilities. The slight differences in biofilm formation could not been explained by hydrophobicity. Results also showed that stainless steel provided the best surface for biofilm formation. The effect of pre-conditioning of the surfaces with milk was dependent on the surface material. Significantly lower attachment could be observed on milk conditioned surfaces in case of cheese isolate