Determination of pesticide resifues and N, P levels and their diffusion in a selected lake of Aitoloakarnania prefecture

[…] The purpose of the present study was to investigate the presence of total nitrogen and total phosphorus and selected pesticides in Lake Amvrakia, to assess the trend of the trophic status and the risk posed to lake ecosystem from the presence of pesticide residues. In order to achieve these objectives, monthly sampling was performed for one year, from March 2007 until February 2008. […][…] Ο σκοπός της παρούσας μελέτης ήταν ο έλεγχος της παρουσίας του ολικού αζώτου και ολικού φωσφόρου και επιλεγμένων παρασιτοκτόνων στη λίμνη Αμβρακία, η εκτίμηση της τροφικής κατάστασης της λίμνης και ο υπολογισμός της επικινδυνότητας από την παρουσία των υπολειμμάτων παρασιτοκτόνων στο λιμναίο οικοσύστημα. Για την υλοποίηση των παραπάνω στόχων πραγματοποιήθηκαν μηνιαίες δειγματοληψίες ενός έτους, από τον Μάρτιο 2007 έως το Φεβρουάριο 2008. […

Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), a Useful Tool in Authenticity of Agricultural Products’ and Foods’ Origin

Fraudulent practices are the first and foremost concern of food industry, with significant consequences in economy and human’s health. The increasing demand for food has led to food fraud by replacing, mixing, blending, and mislabeling products attempting to increase the profits of producers and companies. Consequently, there was the rise of a multidisciplinary field which encompasses a large number of analytical techniques aiming to trace and authenticate the origins of agricultural products, food and beverages. Among the analytical strategies have been developed for the authentication of geographical origin of foodstuff, Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) increasingly dominates the field as a robust, accurate, and highly sensitive technique for determining the inorganic elements in food substances. Inorganic elements are well known for evaluating the nutritional composition of food products while it has been shown that they are considered as possible tracers for authenticating the geographical origin. This is based on the fact that the inorganic component of identical food type originating from different territories varies due to the diversity of matrix composition. The present systematic literature review focusing on gathering the research has been done up-to-date on authenticating the geographical origin of agricultural products and foods by utilizing the ICP-MS technique. The first part of the article is a tutorial about food safety/control and the fundaments of ICP-MS technique, while in the second part the total research review is discussed

Stable Isotope Analysis for the Discrimination of the Geographical Origin of Greek Bottarga ‘Avgotaracho Messolongiou’: A Preliminary Research

Consumers are increasingly interested in the geographical origin of the foodstuff they consume as an important characteristic of food authenticity and quality. To assure the authenticity of the geographical origin, various methods have been proposed. Stable isotope analysis is a method that has been extensively used for products such as wine, oil, meat, while only a few studies have been conducted for the discrimination of seafood origin and especially for mullet roes or bottarga products. Analysis of the stable isotopes of C, N and S of Bottarga samples from four different origins were carried out. The values of δ15N (5.45‰) and δ34S (4.66‰) for the Greek Bottarga Product named ‘Avgotaracho Messolongiou’, from Messolongi lagoon were lower than other areas while δ13C values were higher (−14.84‰). The first results show that the stable isotopes ratios of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur could be used to discriminate the Greek Protected Designations of Origin Bottarga product ‘Avgotaracho Messolongiou’ from other similar products

Probabilistic Machine Learning for the Authentication of the Protected Designation of Origin of Greek Bottarga from Messolongi: A Generic Methodology to Cope with Very Small Number of Samples

Consumers are increasingly interested in the geographical origin of foodstuff, as an important characteristic of food authenticity and quality. To assure the authenticity of the geographical origin, various methods have been proposed. Stable isotope analysis is a method that has been extensively used for products like wine, oil, and meat by using large datasets and analysis. On the other hand, only few studies have been conducted for the discrimination of seafood origin and especially for mullet roes or bottarga products, and even fewer investigate a small number of samples and datasets. Stable isotopes of Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N), and Sulfur (S) analysis of bottarga samples from four different origins were carried out. The first results show that the stable isotopes ratios of C, N, and S could be used to discriminate the Greek PDO Bottarga (Messolongi) from other similar products by using a probabilistic machine learning methodology. That could use limited sample data to fit/estimate their parameters, while, at the same time, being capable of describing accurately the population and discriminate individual samples regarding their origin

Probabilistic Machine Learning for the Authentication of the Protected Designation of Origin of Greek Bottarga from Messolongi: A Generic Methodology to Cope with Very Small Number of Samples

Consumers are increasingly interested in the geographical origin of foodstuff, as an important characteristic of food authenticity and quality. To assure the authenticity of the geographical origin, various methods have been proposed. Stable isotope analysis is a method that has been extensively used for products like wine, oil, and meat by using large datasets and analysis. On the other hand, only few studies have been conducted for the discrimination of seafood origin and especially for mullet roes or bottarga products, and even fewer investigate a small number of samples and datasets. Stable isotopes of Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N), and Sulfur (S) analysis of bottarga samples from four different origins were carried out. The first results show that the stable isotopes ratios of C, N, and S could be used to discriminate the Greek PDO Bottarga (Messolongi) from other similar products by using a probabilistic machine learning methodology. That could use limited sample data to fit/estimate their parameters, while, at the same time, being capable of describing accurately the population and discriminate individual samples regarding their origin

Ecological risk estimation of organophosphorus pesticides in riverine ecosystems

Pesticides are of great concern because of their existence in ecosystems at trace concentrations. Worldwide pesticide use and its ecological impacts (i.e., altered environmental distribution and toxicity of pesticides) have increased over time. Exposure and toxicity studies are vital for reducing the extent of pesticide exposure and risk to the environment and humans. Regional regulatory actions may be less relevant in some regions because the contamination and distribution of pesticides vary across regions and countries. The risk quotient (RQ) method was applied to assess the potential risk of organophosphorus pesticides (OPPs), primarily focusing on riverine ecosystems. Using the available ecotoxicity data, aquatic risks from OPPs (diazinon and chlorpyrifos) in the surface water of the Langat River, Selangor, Malaysia were evaluated based on general (RQm) and worst-case (RQex) scenarios. Since the ecotoxicity of quinalphos has not been well established, quinalphos was excluded from the risk assessment. The calculated RQs indicate medium risk (RQm = 0.17 and RQex = 0.66; 0.1 ≤ RQ 1 (high risk) was observed for both the general and worst cases of chlorpyrifos, but only for the worst cases of diazinon at all sites from downstream to upstream regions. Thus, chlorpyrifos posed a higher risk than diazinon along the Langat River, suggesting that organisms and humans could be exposed to potentially high levels of OPPs