Guidance on date marking and related food information: part 2 (food information)

A risk-based approach was used to develop guidance to be followed by food business operators (FBOs) when deciding on food information relating to storage conditions and/or time limits for consumption after opening a food package and thawing of frozen foods. After opening the package, contamination may occur, introducing new pathogens into the food and the intrinsic (e.g. pH and aw), extrinsic (e.g. temperature and gas atmosphere) and implicit (e.g. interactions with competing background microbiota) factors may change, affecting microbiological food safety. Setting a time limit for consumption after opening the package (secondary shelf-life) is complex in view of the many influencing factors and information gaps. A decision tree (DT) was developed to assist FBOs in deciding whether the time limit for consumption after opening, due to safety reasons, is potentially shorter than the initial ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ date of the product in its unopened package. For products where opening the package leads to a change of the type of pathogenic microorganisms present in the food and/or factors increasing their growth compared to the unopened product, a shorter time limit for consumption after opening would be appropriate. Freezing prevents the growth of pathogens, however, most pathogenic microorganisms may survive frozen storage, recover during thawing and then grow and/or produce toxins in the food, if conditions are favourable. Moreover, additional contamination may occur from hands, contact surfaces or contamination from other foods and utensils. Good practices for thawing should, from a food safety point of view, minimise growth of and contamination by pathogens between the food being thawed and other foods and/or contact surfaces, especially when removing the food from the package during thawing. Best practices for thawing foods are presented to support FBOs

An Atlas of the Thioredoxin Fold Class Reveals the Complexity of Function-Enabling Adaptations

The group of proteins that contain a thioredoxin (Trx) fold is huge and diverse. Assessment of the variation in catalytic machinery of Trx fold proteins is essential in providing a foundation for understanding their functional diversity and predicting the function of the many uncharacterized members of the class. The proteins of the Trx fold class retain common features—including variations on a dithiol CxxC active site motif—that lead to delivery of function. We use protein similarity networks to guide an analysis of how structural and sequence motifs track with catalytic function and taxonomic categories for 4,082 representative sequences spanning the known superfamilies of the Trx fold. Domain structure in the fold class is varied and modular, with 2.8% of sequences containing more than one Trx fold domain. Most member proteins are bacterial. The fold class exhibits many modifications to the CxxC active site motif—only 56.8% of proteins have both cysteines, and no functional groupings have absolute conservation of the expected catalytic motif. Only a small fraction of Trx fold sequences have been functionally characterized. This work provides a global view of the complex distribution of domains and catalytic machinery throughout the fold class, showing that each superfamily contains remnants of the CxxC active site. The unifying context provided by this work can guide the comparison of members of different Trx fold superfamilies to gain insight about their structure-function relationships, illustrated here with the thioredoxins and peroxiredoxins

Corrigendum to "European contribution to the study of ROS:A summary of the findings and prospects for the future from the COST action BM1203 (EU-ROS)" [Redox Biol. 13 (2017) 94-162]

The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) provides an ideal framework to establish multi-disciplinary research networks. COST Action BM1203 (EU-ROS) represents a consortium of researchers from different disciplines who are dedicated to providing new insights and tools for better understanding redox biology and medicine and, in the long run, to finding new therapeutic strategies to target dysregulated redox processes in various diseases. This report highlights the major achievements of EU-ROS as well as research updates and new perspectives arising from its members. The EU-ROS consortium comprised more than 140 active members who worked together for four years on the topics briefly described below. The formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) is an established hallmark of our aerobic environment and metabolism but RONS also act as messengers via redox regulation of essential cellular processes. The fact that many diseases have been found to be associated with oxidative stress established the theory of oxidative stress as a trigger of diseases that can be corrected by antioxidant therapy. However, while experimental studies support this thesis, clinical studies still generate controversial results, due to complex pathophysiology of oxidative stress in humans. For future improvement of antioxidant therapy and better understanding of redox-associated disease progression detailed knowledge on the sources and targets of RONS formation and discrimination of their detrimental or beneficial roles is required. In order to advance this important area of biology and medicine, highly synergistic approaches combining a variety of diverse and contrasting disciplines are needed

Dietary supplementation with ferric tyrosine improves zootechnical performance and reduces caecal Campylobacter spp. load in poultry

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of ferric tyrosine on the reduction of Campylobacter spp. and zootechnical performance in broilers exposed to Campylobacter spp. using a natural challenge model to simulate commercial conditions. Additionally, the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of ferric tyrosine against common enteropathogens were evaluated. On day 0, 840 healthy male day-old birds (Ross 308) were randomly allocated to 6 replicate pens of 35 birds and fed diets containing different concentrations of ferric tyrosine (0, 0.02, 0.05 and 0.2 g/kg) in mash form for 42 days. Overall, broilers fed diets containing ferric tyrosine showed significantly improved body weight at day 42 and weight gain compared to the control group. However, birds fed ferric tyrosine ate significantly more than the control birds so significant improvements in FCR were not observed. Microbiological analyses of caecal samples collected on day 42 of the study showed, per gram sample, 2-3 log10 reduction in Campylobacter spp. and 1 log10 reduction in Escherichia coli in the groups fed diets containing ferric tyrosine compared to the control and Salmonella enterica, indicating that ferric tyrosine does not exert antimicrobial activity. Collectively, these results show that birds fed ferric tyrosine grew faster and consumed more feed compared to the control birds indicating potential benefits of faster attainment of slaughter weight with no significant reduction on feed efficiency. Moreover, ferric tyrosine significantly reduces caecal Campylobacter spp. and E. coli indicating potential as a non-antibiotic feed additive to lower the risk of Campylobacter infections transmitted through the food chain

Distribution and Genetic Profiles of Campylobacter in Commercial Broiler Production from Breeder to Slaughter in Thailand

Poultry and poultry products are commonly considered as the major vehicle of Campylobacter infection in humans worldwide. To reduce the number of human cases, the epidemiology of Campylobacter in poultry must be better understood. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to determine the distribution and genetic relatedness of Campylobacter in the Thai chicken production industry. During June to October 2012, entire broiler production processes (i.e., breeder flock, hatchery, broiler farm and slaughterhouse) of five broiler production chains were investigated chronologically. Representative isolates of C. jejuni from each production stage were characterized by flaA SVR sequencing and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Amongst 311 selected isolates, 29 flaA SVR alleles and 17 sequence types (STs) were identified. The common clonal complexes (CCs) found in this study were CC-45, CC-353, CC-354 and CC-574. C. jejuni isolated from breeders were distantly related to those isolated from broilers and chicken carcasses, while C. jejuni isolates from the slaughterhouse environment and meat products were similar to those isolated from broiler flocks. Genotypic identification of C. jejuni in slaughterhouses indicated that broilers were the main source of Campylobacter contamination of chicken meat during processing. To effectively reduce Campylobacter in poultry meat products, control and prevention strategies should be aimed at both farm and slaughterhouse levels

A nontransformable Triticum monococcum monocotyledonous culture produces the potent Agrobacterium vir-inducing compound ethyl ferulate.

Exudates of dicotyledonous plants contain specific phenolic signal molecules, such as acetosyringone, which serve as potent inducers for the expression of the virulence (vir) regulon of the phytopathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens. This induction activates the Agrobacterium T-DNA transfer process to initiate the genetic transformation of target plant cells. Wounded and metabolically active plant cells are particularly susceptible to Agrobacterium infection, and these cells specifically produce vir-inducing molecules. Most monocotyledonous, as opposed to dicotyledonous, species are resistant to Agrobacterium transformation. One hypothesis for this resistance is that nonsusceptible monocotyledonous cells fail to produce vir signal molecules and, thus, are not recognized by Agrobacterium as transformation targets. Here we demonstrate that monocotyledonous cells make such molecules, and, furthermore, we purify the inducer produced by a Triticum monococcum suspension culture that is resistant to Agrobacterium infection. This molecule is shown to correspond to ethyl ferulate [C12H14O4; 3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-2-propenoic acid ethyl ester], to be more active for vir induction at low concentrations than acetosyringone, and to be produced in quantities giving significant levels of induction. Thus, at least for the wheat cell line used in this study, monocotyledonous resistance to Agrobacterium transformation must result from a block to a step of the T-DNA transfer process subsequent to vir induction